The Line
by RaeynnBeau
Summary: Takes place after the end of the manga; Lin and Naru have returned from England, and life continues on as normal for SPR ... Or does it? The group takes on a series of cases, but without the guidance of "Dream Naru", will everything be alright? And, why has real-Naru started acting so strangely? Can Mai figure everything out, and get a hold of her blossoming powers in the process?
1. Case 1: Same Old Same

**A/N****:** Literally just finished reading the manga like, 8hrs ago and this happened … Yeah. I felt really painfully unfulfilled after I finished it, so I decided to fix it. Or something. I dunno xD Also sorry for all the prologue exposition in this chapter; not a whole lot happens here unfortunately ... Coming chapters should be more event-ful, promise!

**WARNING: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FROM THE END OF THE MANGA.** If you don't know the ending, and don't want to know before you finish reading it, then don't read this fic. Please. x3

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Chapter 1, Case 1: Same Old Same Old

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_Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!_ (1)_  
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"SPR, how can I help?" Taniyama Mai murmured under her breath, as if she were practicing _actually_ picking up the phone. Even after everything she had learned before Naru and Lin had returned to England ... Once they'd come back nothing had really changed; the brunette felt that this was a safe assessment even if they had only been back for a week. She still couldn't answer the phone, she still didn't look at the mail unless Lin had sorted through it first … Madoka had even argued on her behalf a bit, but to no avail; they were stuck in their ways. It only bothered her a little; at this point it was more like they didn't trust her to do the job right than it was that they were keeping secrets from her or anything. Not that she had speculated they were keeping secrets from her when they really had been anyway - so really, it was the same as before.

However, since she had learned that Naru was a college student – in fact, now he sometimes had to travel back to England, and she assumed it was to attend classes – she had … Well, for most of the time Naru and Lin had been gone, though she wouldn't admit it to anyone … Mai had been a bit depressed. It wasn't that she felt _inferior_ or anything (though she'd be lying if she said she didn't a _tiny_ bit) but … Well, figuring things out wasn't exactly her strong suit …

At first, without the office to go to constantly after classes, she'd tried to regress to her old patterns. Namely, staying out with her friends for as long as she could before eventually retreating to her apartment.

The only problem was, well … Honestly, she had realized how much time she'd been spending at SPR, but she hadn't realized the effect it had on her friends at school. Mai had basically gone to class, gone to the office, gone home, slept, did homework, rinsed and repeated every day except weekends or times she had needed to be on leave from school to work on a case with Naru and everyone. And unfortunately, that had alienated her from her friends a lot more than she thought it would have; not that she'd had many to begin with but once they had started wanting to spend less and less time with her outside of class ... she had eventually just stopped asking.

Not that she blamed them she supposed; she had sort of been ignoring them in lieu of her part time job for a year now. If they weren't comfortable hanging around her, then that wasn't their fault. It still bothered her a bit when she sat down and thought about it – so she just tried not to do that. Madoka had kept some hours for for the office while Naru and Lin were away, but she had shooed Mai off more than once telling her that she'd still be paid the same; just go outside and enjoy the nice weather before it was gone. Mai knew she was trying to be kind, but honestly the brunet would've preferred having the security blanket the office afforded her day in and day out.

She'd gone to visit Ayako and Bou-san (2) and even Masako a few times but … She felt like she was being selfish and a burden, only going around them because she was lonely ... So instead, Mai decided to do something a little more constructive with her time. When Madako shuffled her out of the office early (which happened more often than not), she had started walking home as slowly as possible; going the long way, she realized one day that she was always passing the public library. And one day, on a whim, she decided to stop and browse around. At first she was looking for something to read, but she quickly realized that honestly, she wasn't interested in fiction at all ... And a few hours later later she realized she had pulled down a few books about supernatural phenomena and was reading them. With a lot of interest, actually.

Originally what drew her attention was a title that talked about Okiku and the Well, which made her think of the case they had taken with Ayami and her doll, Minnie ... And there had been other books nearby on similar topics, so she had taken a few of those too ... Normally Mai didn't really like to read; at all, she was sort of slow at it and it irritated her eyes, and it tended to usually be boring but ... When it was about things that she had experience with or knew a little about, it was interesting to her to find out more about it. And, as fate would have it, for the six months or so that Masako continued to shoo her away from the office, since they had little to no work anyway, (she didn't really take any cases for the entire time Lin and Naru were gone), she regularly stopped at the library, and read up on all sorts of goulies, ghosties, and long legged beasties simply to pass the time.

But that was then, and this was now; once Lin and Naru had come back, she had stopped going to the library because the office was open and there was no way Naru was going to be nice enough to let her leave early and still pay her the same ... Not that he didn't pay her well to begin with of course, but it had gotten to the point that Mai could almost live totally comfortably and save money on top of that, and she didn't want to give that up. It was the first time in a long time that she wasn't too hard pressed financially, and it was always good to have a security net if you could help it.

However, she did sometimes wish she had one of the books she had been reading at the library; it was boring around the office when there was no tea to make and nothing to straighten up ... She didn't get to answer phones or sort mail or do pretty much anything else, so her duties, while few and far between, didn't keep her busy for the entire time. It used to be that she was content enough to twiddle her thumbs or day dream, but, something about spending all of that time reading up on things that actually interested her - it had been oddly exhilarating, to be able to think to herself _I ran into one of those once_, or _you can get rid of one of those if you ..._ or _I wonder if we'll ever meet one of those! ... _It was probably the most engagement she'd gotten out of any books in her entire life.

In fact, she had a few of those books that she'd taken out of the library (I know, I know _-_ who is this girl and what has she done with Taniyama Mai?) at her apartment right now. She hadn't finished them last week before Naru and Lin came back, and she'd known that this would be her last chance to get them since she didn't really have time to go to the library when she worked ... So they were sitting in her apartment, for whenever she had a minute to peruse them.

Which was basically now ... because she was pretty bored.

* * *

"-ai." Brown eyes opened slowly to a sound. At first she wasn't sure what it was, but blinking and sitting up straighter helped to remedy that. Naru was standing across the desk from her, looking down; blinking a few more times, she tried to figure out what was going on.

"Huh?" Was the most intelligent thing the brunette could manage as she reached up to rub at one of her eyes. Had she fallen asleep ...?

"I said we're not on a case - so there's no excuse for you to be sleeping on the job, Mai." Mai couldn't help pursing her lips, feeling her cheeks puff out indignantly when she heard Naru's voice. Sitting up, she tried to play it off as best she could.

"Well, maybe if you'd give me more things to do, like answering the phone, I _wouldn't_ get so bored I fall asleep!" Not that Mai thought the argument would help her situation any, but she made it all the same. And as predicted, the answer she received didn't make much difference at all.

"The phone's rung three times this afternoon - you didn't even move. If I let you answer them, we'd never get any work." However, it did embarrass her a little bit; how long had she been asleep for? ... ... She hadn't realized she'd been sleeping that heavily - or at all, really. Mai didn't even remember falling asleep, or getting tired ...

"You can go home; we're closing." The second time he spoke, he startled the girl at the desk; the teenager had thought that the older boy had gone back into his office, or ... Gone anywhere rather than stay standing there. But apparently that wasn't the case.

"Oh - uh, righ-." before she could get the response out fully though, the door to the office she still wasn't allowed inside closed in her face, and stopped her mid sentence. Lowering the hand she hadn't realized she'd raised a little, Mai sighed as she looked at the closed door to Naru's office - she hadn't _meant_ to fall asleep ... And what's worse was it was the second time in a week it had happened; and it was the first week Lin and Naru had been back, no less. Last time he'd said he didn't know what Madoka had let her get away with, but she should unlearn any bad habits she picked up. This time he had just seemed irritated ...

Rubbing her temple with two fingers gently, Mai glanced out the window; it was dark out, and after locating a clock to read, she realized that it was actually later than their normal closing time. In fact it was almost nine o'clock at night. Standing and stretching a little, she took her bag out of the desk drawer where it normally stayed while she was in the office and put on her coat.

"Osaki ni," (3) the brunette called as she left, not that anyone would respond, but it was a habit - she always left first because she didn't have a key to the office or anything, so she was never the last to leave, and Lin and Naru ... Suffice to say that where one went, the other seldom didn't follow. So, as the odd one out, she was the one that left before anyone else.

As she strolled down the dark street, she started thinking of the things she had read about, wondering if they were real. I mean, if some of the things she'd run into were in those books, who's to say that all of the other things weren't out there? Clearly just because she hadn't seen them didn't mean they couldn't be real - she'd dealt with enough supernatural stuff before to know that.

_I just wish they would trust me enough to let me do ... well ... anything besides make tea and look after customers ... Which usually don't come to the office anyway ... _ Mai thought to herself at the end of the night when they closed the office and sent her home. It was a dark night, and she wasn't looking forward to the walk home - as she used to when she was at the office, the brunette quickly made her way back to her apartment, traveling the shortest distance possible, key in hand so that she could unlock her door as soon as she got there.

It wasn't that Taniyama Mai was afraid of the dark, it was just ...

Alright, so maybe she was a _little_, but given her line of work and what she'd dealt with in the past, could you really blame her all that much?

Stepping inside her apartment, she kicked off her shoes and dropped her school bag, closing the door behind herself after she had taken her keyring back from it. Sighing and running her fingers through her hair, she honestly didn't feel like eating anything; she didn't really feel like doing anything at all, honestly. So, rather than fix herself instant noodles or something equally as unappetizing, she changed into her pajamas, washed her face, and got ready for bed.

Fairly collapsing onto the futon once she'd set it up, she pushed her face into her pillow as if she were smothering herself. Honestly, she might as well have; the brunette didn't really like looking around her one room apartment. It was sort of depressing. She had one window, one closet, one book shelf, one dresser, a small fridge, a pantry, the bathroom ... And that was about it really. Small and dark; Mai actually spent as much time away from her apartment as she could because she didn't like it; it was where she lived, but it didn't really feel like a _home_.

Sighing out a breath, she eventually turned over to spare herself asphyxiation, and instead stared at the ceiling that she could hardly see. For some odd reason, Mai thought she would've been happier once Lin and Naru came back from abroad. When they had left ... It had just felt ... Well, oddly bittersweet; she was glad that the SPR office wasn't closing, of course - and she had thought that the sadness she had felt was just her anticipating missing them and missing working at the office ...

And yet, here they were back, and she really didn't feel any different. Maybe because nothing had changed, but, if it had truly just been her missing the two other people that frequented the office, then it shouldn't matter if things were exactly the same since they left ...

No, she had an idea of why she was still so restless ...

Letting out a breath, Mai closed her eyes, and slowed her breathing. _One ... two ... ... three ... ... four ... _slowly, she started to count her breaths as she took them. Once the brunette was completely engrossed in her lungs expanding and contracting, she slowly shifted her awareness to her body; she could feel where every part of herself was - from the tips of her fingers and toes to the crown of her head. And then, she moved her mind to focusing on the ends of her fingers. She slowly let the tension out of them, one by one ... After the fingers, she moved to the wrist ... after the wrists were her elbows ... shoulders ... legs ... lower back ... and finally the neck. All of the tension had been released at that point.

She'd started doing this since Naru and Lin had been gone ... Since she had started feeling a little more alone; especially at night in her apartment when she really was by herself. Mai knew it was silly - it was just the technique she had learned from "Dream Naru" - or, more properly, Eugene, but for some reason ... It made her feel like she wasn't so alone. Even though she knew she would never see that Dream Naru again ... Somehow it made her feel like he was with her.

Silly, how something so small and pointless could make her feel so much better.

That was the last thought she had before she let herself drift off completely from her relaxed state ...

* * *

Mai's breath came in sharp, short pants as she stopped outside of the door to the SPR office, bracing her hands on her knees for a second. She had been chosen to take care of home room duties after classes that afternoon because of an absence, so she was unexpectedly late. Mai hadn't been expecting to be so long, or she'd have called the office to let Naru or Lin know ... _Not that they probably really care anyway ... They can handle making a pot of tea themselves for once._ Which seemed to be the only thing Mai was valuable for to them. Just as her heart rate calmed down to a reasonable level (she had sprinted the entire way from school), she reached for the door knob to open it and go into the office for another afternoon of intense boredom. Suppose it was almost the weekend though, so she wouldn't have to sit and stare at a desk or make tea again for a few days at least. Not a _particularly_ comforting thought, since the trade off was that she didn't have anything to do except sit in her apartment, but-

"You're late." the tone wasn't accusatory or anything, but it did surprise Mai both because she had been semi-lost in her thoughts, and because it came from behind her. Whipping around, she was going to yell something because she had recognized it as Naru's voice, but she paused when she saw equipment in his hands before he turned and started walking away from him. No one had mentioned anything about a case to her - were they traveling somewhere? If they were, Mai would be the last one to hear about it ... Which wasn't exactly strange, but usually they gave her _some_ sort of head's up.

"Naru?" she asked, confusion evident in her tone. He brushed her off as per usual, saying something about having a case, so stop being lazy and start doing manual labor. Indignantly, she marched into the office to collect up supplies from the closet where they were kept. Manual labor. That was the other things she was good for; and she supposed that she didn't really earn her keep unless they went on cases ... Sighing in irritation, she picked up a box of equipment and started carrying things out to the van.

"Are you even going to tell me where we're going?" She asked when she ran across Naru's path again; she'dve asked Lin, but she came across her narcissistic boss first - Lin at least would've given her a straight answer. Then again, he probably wouldn't have done much better than Naru did.

"Saitama prefecture." Was the extremely wordy answer she received, which made her sigh. Well, at least she wouldn't have to take off from school most likely - it was a short commute, so unless Naru told her for some reason she had to stay during the day, she could go probably back and forth to school. Assuming this case took any sort of extended period of time; honestly they could get there and solve it in an afternoon. She doubted it highly, as it had never happened, and since Naru only took cases that 'interested' him, they'd probably never get something so easy.

Mai didn't say anything in response to the information she'd gained; she didn't have an opinion on it either way, though she was glad to know. Moving more of the high tech equipment for transport, she noticed that there was already a good deal of the equipment moved; she wasn't _that_ late - were they in some kind of hurry? Normally it didn't matter what they were doing, Lin and Naru would wait for her to get there and start carting stuff for them.

However, as strange as she thought it, she didn't mention it; she'd probably get told to be thankful they were helping or something stupid and frustrating. Which was Naru's MO.

Letting out a breath, Taniyama Mai climbed into the van after all of their standard equipment was loaded and belted herself in. She figured she'd find out more about the case once they got there, so she didn't waste her breath asking about it. It was standard procedure for them to ask the client to re-iterate their problem once they arrived so they could hear it in person. Setting her school bag on her lap, the brunette looked out the window as Lin started the vehicle, and they pulled away from the curb and started towards the suburbs.

* * *

They came to a stop outside of a small house. Mai had never really been to Saitama prefecture before - there was a school trip to Chichibu once to see the hotsprings and a temple, but she had opted not to go because of the expense. A penny saved is a penny earned, and when you eat instant ramen for several meals a day, you can stretch a penny pretty far.

But, that wasn't where their destination was anyway; apparently their client lived in Sayama, and when Lin stopped the car, Mai hopped out, full of energy as per usual. Stretching, she was glad to be out of the car - not that they had been traveling for a long time or anything, but she hated being cooped up for too long; she was about to mention how glad she was that this wasn't another case they had to travel a long distance to get to ...

However, she stopped short before she got the sentence out.

"Huh?" Blinking, Mai looked over her shoulder at the house they had stopped in front of ... It felt like someone was looking at her from that direction. But ... She didn't see anyone. Hmmm ... Strange. The brunette went to just shrug it off, but ... For some reason that just made her feel even more uneasy; like there was something in the bottom of her stomach, twisting around – like a snake made of nausea. But, Mai didn't see anything in the windows or near the house ... Not that that made it bother her any less – at this point it was really making her feel sick.

But then ... as suddenly as it started, it stopped. Which for some reason was more concerning to Mai than the initial feeling; it was gone. That feeling of sickness and dread - it had only hit her for a few seconds at most she realized, but it had been so strong ... And now it was gone. Mai tried to catch a glimpse of whatever had given her that sensation – and she was suddenly very sure it had been _given_ to her – but the brunette saw nothing. She was so distracted in her search that she couldn't get it out of her head even when Naru called after her to pay attention; she keept looking even as she started up the walkway to the house so they could meet the clients in person.

For some reason, Taniyama Mai had it in her head that after this case, _nothing_ was going to be the same anymore.

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**Tsu zu ku ...**

**(To Be Continued)**

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Footnotes:

1 – Manga sound effect for a ringing telephone x3

2 – "Bou-san" is what they call Houshou in the anime/manga; it means "Monk".

3 – "Osaki ni" is a sort of informal version of what you say in Japan when you leave the office before other people; it sort of means "I'm leaving first"; usually you follow it up with a shitsurei-shimasu, which is like "please excuse me", but she's omitted it here (making it more informal).


	2. Case 1: Alright

**A/N****:** Well, this chapter is long overdue! ... Almost a year later ... Sorry about the wait :( I'm really not even sure why it took me so long; I have extensive notes written out for this fic, but something about writing the chapter ... It just took me _forever_. Hopefully the next one won't be such a long time in coming. I'm trying to commit to updating all of my in-progress fanfics once a month so ... We'll see how that goes. Sort of a New Year's resolution, I guess.

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Case 1, Chapter 2: Alright

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As they made their way up the front path, Mai's brown eyes kept flickering back and forth between the windows, looking for the origin of that strange feeling; and the less likely it looked that she was going to find the source, the more on edge it made her feel. In fact, she was really starting to get agitated – not in the irritated way, but in the jittery, nervous sort of way. She just had a bad feeling all around, and she would have told Naru and Lin, but it seemed that all three of them were already at the front door, and she wasn't sure how that had even happened …

Just before anyone could knock said door opened, and a middle age man looked out at them. For a moment, Mai thought that perhaps that that was the source of the feeling she'd had, but somehow she knew after looking at him for a few moments that that wasn't the case. He was a slight man, and wrung his hands nervously as he greeted them and lead them inside after the group introduced themselves. Mai glanced around absently as she stepped through the door to follow the group.

_Strange … it felt like she was floating. Drifting … Hadn't she just been doing something ..?_

_/..me …/ Her head felt heavy as she turned it, trying to see where that quiet voice had come from. /… Help … me …/ _

_/Who … who are you?/ the words were difficult to say, like she was chewing a mouthful of rice candy and had to speak around it. She felt something move around her without seeing it, andgot the distinct impression that whatever it was was hiding behind her. Hiding from what, she didn't know, but Mai could feel the fear from this elusive … spirit? Entity? Honestly the brunette had no idea what it was. _

_When she tried to turn towards it to look at it, it slid around behind her again, tremoring in fear. /Why are you so afraid?/ Mai asked slowly, softly. / You … want help?/_

_/Yosh-/ (1)_

"… Mai?" hazily, Mai heard a voice saying her name, and she made a noise in response. It was supposed to be some kind of affirmation, but her lips and tongue felt like they were numb, so the quiet groan was the best she could pull off. Slowly, she managed to pry her eyes open, and blinked as she realized that everything was oddly above her … Until she also realized that she was laying down.

"Wh … What happened …?" she was disoriented as she slowly sat up, but she couldn't really seem to get her head to stop spinning. A strong hand clasped on her arm, and Mai was pulled steadily to her feet; after a moment she managed to look up, and saw that it was Lin helping her to stand.

"Are-are you alright dear!? As soon as you stepped into the house, you … you collapsed!" a slightly flighty, nervous voice said. Mai looked over and saw a woman, about the same age as the man that had answered the door, and the brunette assumed that they were probably married and lived in the house, since it was a home, rather than a commercial establishment or something.

"I … I did?" Mai asked, trying to shake off the weird, disjointed feeling that was still making her feel like she was floating around near the ceiling somewhere. She'd never really experienced it before; and the brunette had no idea what to make of it. Laughing a little to try and clear things up as the woman started to fuss over her, she waved her hands slightly. "I'm fine now! Really – I have no idea what happened."

She was met by skepticism on both ends – the clients as well as Lin and Naru. Not that Lin or Naru actually said anything, or even really looked at her or probably even cared that she'd fallen down … But they knew that when she was asleep or unconscious in some way that she tended to make a good channel for spirits, so at the very least, they probably doubted that she had no idea what was going on.

Or they didn't care at all.

Whatever; she didn't care about what they thought anyway.

"Well … if you're sure …?" she seemed hesitant, but Mai just smiled and nodded rapidly, which actually made her get a little dizzy, but she ignored it. This display seemed to convince her well enough that the student was alright, or alright enough that they could focus on the case at hand rather than her impending health. They all sat in the living room and were offered tea, which some accepted and some did not, before they discussed business.

"Tell us, in your own words, what you've been experiencing." Naru said calmly, which broke the comfortable silence that had settled between everyone and made it a bit more awkward. Looking down, the woman, who had introduced herself as Chieko, spoke quietly.

"It started when we first moved into the house. We figured it was just the sounds of the house settling or something, but it really sounds like there are people walking around the house. It happens mostly at night, when just my husband and I are at home." The nervous man that was still wringing his hands nodded and added,

"Sometimes it sounds like something is hitting the walls as well; there is a loud banging noise. And …" Here he trailed off awkwardly though, as if he didn't want to say whatever came next.

"And?" Of course Naru wasn't going to let that slide; they needed all of the details of the case. However, with the way that the man before them flinched, Mai frowned, and wished that her boss could be at least a little more delicate in his phrasing. Not that Naru cared either way if he upset someone, she knew, but still …

"And," Chieko continued for him, "sometimes there is the sound of someone crying. It's hard to hear a lot of the time, but it isn't the wind – we both hear it, and we have even had guests over and say that they hear it as well." Though she was hearing everything that was being said, and trying to remain attentive, Mai was having a really hard time focusing because of what had happened to her. Who was that spirit? Or what, for that matter? She couldn't ask Naru … or rather, she could, but the Narcissist wouldn't answer her, she was sure. He'd just ignore her or figure out the answer himself and not tell her what it was. Then he'd go off on his own and take care of it without even telling her that he was doing anything, let alone what he was actually doing …

"—equipment, Mai. Mai? _Mai_." The brunette jumped slightly as she turned towards the voice, and met a harsh glare from her employer. Shrinking under it without meaning to, she snapped out of her reverie, trying to figure out what directive she had been given that she ignored, or how else she might've irritated the constantly irate Narcissist.

Taniyama Mai missed the Dream Naru—Eugene.

He never really spoke to her that much, but … He would always smile, and make her feel better. Like no matter what was happening, it was alright; they would get through it. She just missed him being around; it was so strange that he had the same face as Naru, and yet was so different from him. Case in point with that look that made her skin crawl, or alternatively made her want to just shrivel up and die.

"Equipment. Right – I'm on it!" she leapt to her feet suddenly, running to the door and kicking on her shoes in a flurry, heading out to the van quickly … … And realizing that it was locked, and Lin, who was leisurely trailing behind her, had the keys. This turned her face slightly red from embarrassment at her enthusiasm, but she said nothing, waiting patiently for the vehicle to be opened so she could help unload everything and set up a base inside of the house.

Once it was open, Mai set to unloading the van almost in a frenzy. This was their first case since Lin and Naru came back after all - of course she was excited, but ... There was a part of her that was afraid they'd decide they didn't need a third employee at SPR any more, and, well ... At this point, besides school, which she was hardly interested in, this job was basically all she had. Not to mention that since she had gotten it, simply _living_ had become far easier, but ...

She shook her head, realizing that she had zoned out again for a moment while setting down one of the boxes on a table in the room they were using as their base of operations.

"Let us know if there is anything you need - we have another table we can bring in for you to set up on," the nervous, almost flighty Chieko said from behind Mai at the doorway. The brunette smiled at her, and the woman seemed to relax a little; but then, who could blame her? She and her husband had been dealing almost exclusively with Naru since SPR accepted the case, and let's just say if the boy was a doctor his bedside manner would be atrocious.

"I think we're all set for now, thank you," Mai said, bowing gratefully. Surprisingly, Chieko immediately shook her head and bowed back lower.

"No no - we should be thanking you! All of our savings went into this house, and, while nothing absolutely terrible has happened, if the house is haunted or something is going on, we would be devastated if we had to move. Honestly, I'm not sure we could afford it-oh, but there I go, babbling on. Sorry; you don't need to hear about our troubles. You're just here to do your job." That sounded suspiciously like something Naru would say ... So Mai immediately shook her head.

"No, that's alright. I'm sure it must be very stressful for you, so I'm glad that you called us so that we could take the time to try and help you," she said sincerely, keeping the bright smile on her face. However, it faltered slightly when she caught Naru's eyes on her from the doorway with the expression that said 'the equipment isn't going to move itself'. "Ahahaha - right anyway, better keep setting up!"

Chieko looked slightly confused as Mai carefully slipped past her, and watched her go off down the hallway quickly in her sock feet, stopping at the door to put her shoes back on before barreling out the door, more than slightly cross expression on her face. Leave it to Naru to interject with that irritating, cocky face of his and ruin everything. She hadn't even been slacking off; she was just talking to the client for a moment and being polite. It's not like she didn't normally do everything he told her to, even if she thought it was poor idea ... Unless it was a _very_ poor idea, in which case she tended to argue with him, but that wasn't the point!

Picking up another heavy box to haul, she tried not to stomp her feet as she walked in; leave it to Naru to put her in a bad mood in the blink of an eye ...

* * *

"Did you see anything during your nap?" the voice behind her made Mai jump and hit her head on the underside of the desk she was crawling beneath. She had been plugging equipment in, and grumbling she crawled out from under it, holding the back of her head where it had hit, glaring at Naru because he'd known she didn't know he was there. While he probably hadn't done it _entirely_ on purpose, he could've waited until she was looking at him to talk to her.

"It wasn't a nap!" she shouted at him angrily, still rubbing her head a little as she knelt on the ground. Now was not the time to be mad though; what she had experienced might've been important somehow. Taking a breath and letting it out, she thought a moment before continuing with, "… … and, there was a … presence. A spirit. Or maybe not; I don't know what it was."

She could _feel_ Naru frowning at her; normally she would have flinched away from it, but strangely it occurred to her that it felt … It felt almost like he wasn't frowning at her, so much as he was just considering what she was saying. Weird. Encouraged slightly, Mai continued her story.

"It was upset – I could tell it was afraid and it was … It was like it tried hide behind me or something. It asked me for help, and I asked who it was, but it didn't answer. So I asked to confirm if it needed help and it said alright …" it was hard to remember all of the details, but those were the important parts as far as she knew. Lin had slowed down in hooking up the monitor he was working on, glancing over at Mai. Confused, she was about to ask what, but Naru interjected again.

"What _exactly_ did it say to you?" The harsh tone in his voice made her feel like he was chastising her for leaving out something important, which only serve to irritate the brunette. So much so that she shouted without meaning to.

"Exactly what I just said!" Mai hadn't meant to yell that loud, so letting out another slow breath, she continued at a more normal speaking level, "I asked a few questions – who are you, why are you so afraid, and then, when I didn't get a response I asked 'you want help …?' And it answered 'yosh'." Naru frowned slightly, and she knew he was thinking, trying to figure something out. And just because Mai wasn't particularly _great_ at figuring things out didn't mean there was no reason to share with the class … The black haired teenager seemed vaguely irritated at her statement, but … with a heavy sigh, he rubbed at his temples.

"It said 'alright'? Isn't that a strange way to answer that question?" Lin asked the question, so clearly he had an idea of what Naru was thinking of. Mai was getting really sick of being late to the party … But at least someone was trying to explain something, and it wasn't one of the three that Naru normally hired taking pity on her again. Brown eyes narrowed slightly in thought about the question, and Lin explained further, "wouldn't you normally answer that with a simple yes or no, especially if you were injured or afraid and really wanted help?"

Before anyone could answer though, there was a knock on the door jam, and once opened, it was revealed that the culprits were John Brown, Bou-san, Ayako, and even Hara-san was there. Mai's brown eye slit up as she scrambled to her feet off of the floor, dusting herself off.

"It's been so long since we were all together! Hisashiburi—ne!" (2) Mai, in her excitement, forgot that Naru and Lin had been thinking about the case, and there was a bit of disruption as she went around to everyone, going through the necessary motions of hugging Bou-san and Ayako, waving to Hara-san, chatting for a second with John Brown … It really had been a long time since they had all been in the same room together; true, she had gone to visit them individually while Naru and Lin were abroad, but to actually be on a case separately? That was a whole different thing, and it was obvious how excited Mai was because of it.

As it went, SPR explained the situation to their 'contract workers' (since really, that's what the three of them were at this point), and of course all of them postulated theories - Bou-san and Ayako the most loudly and obnoxiously, mostly at each other because they were different theories. Seriously, sometimes Mai thought the air was going to snap with all of the tension between the two of them ... They really were like parents in front of their kids. The thought made the brunette smile as predictably, John Brown tried to interject to get them to stop arguing ... Much like the oldest child probably would. Where as Hara-san kept quietly to herself, standing near Naru as per usual and trying to get his attention in a subtle, quiet, not at all assuming way. Like the youngest child would. And Mai, being the middle child of course, just watched all of this with more than a slight amount of amusement.

"I didn't ask you here so you could argue." Aaaand there was Naru. Interjecting and ruining everyone's jovial moods. How surprising. In the next couple of hours, Naru allowed each of the three to argue for what they thought would fix the problem - and eventually, as per usual, settled on allowing one of them to perform an exorcism in order to get rid of the spirit. This had almost become standard practice for them, though Mai always did genuinely hope that it would work as she watched Ayako in her miko garb with her hair tied back, visiting every room in the house ... But it was never this easy. Especially not when Naru asked Hara-san what she felt, and she responded with,

"There is still a presence here." However, to be fair she was normally right when she said something like that - and Mai had to agree. That strange feeling she had gotten when they had first pulled up outside of the house had been enough to put her on edge. The brunette wasn't so sure that everything was fine now either.

Unsurprisingly, after the ceremony the owners of the home were delighted, since they thought that there was a chance that would do the trick - however, Naru offered that they would stick around to see if they got any readings, or if the problem had been solved, and Chieko and her husband agreed. Which meant staring at screens and monitors and flashing lights and equipment until something happened or they turned blue in the face. Hooray.

Sighing, Mai sat down in the room while John, Hara-san, and the others left. Persumably whatever 'danger' there was had passed, and since nothing had reacted violently or angrily directly afterwards, there was probably nothing to fear.

* * *

Mai wandered out into the living room; it was her turn to have a break from staring at the monitors and waiting for there to be some kind of change, which was nice but ... she didn't really have anywhere to go or anything to do. Suppose she had some homework she could work on, but she wasn't really interested, as per usual. Chieko and her husband had left the house, going to do some grocery shopping or something they had said; it wasn't like Mai was hungry or needed anything, but it might've been nice to have a chat with one of them about something _not_ related to the case. It would probably at least set them a little more at ease to talk about something else, and it would help Mai get to know them a little better, which was always nice.

They had already gone in every room in the house when the equipment had been set up; cameras and microphones and sensors and about a million other things that made her head spin. She knew how to put them where they needed to go, and how to plug them in. Anything else was Lin or Naru's department, she just did the grunt work.

_After all, that's what I'm good for, right?_ she thought to herself before she realized what she was doing. Stopping, she shook her head and patted her face sharply. _Snap out of it; thoughts like that aren't going to help anything._ And it was true; she always told herself things like that - Taniyama Mai always tried to be upbeat, because being sad and down never helped get anything done. Balling her hands into fists, she nodded in determination - alright, no more sad talk from her. It didn't matter that Eugene was gone-

Her peppy thoughts slowly ground to a stop even as she kept absently walking along. Where had that idea come from? It didn't bother her that Eugene was gone ... Alright, yes it _did_, but not _presently_. She hadn't been thinking about that at all, so why ... Hmmm. Shaking her head slightly, Mai forgot it like it never happened; it wasn't important now, or at the very least to this case, so it could definitely wait. Stretching to get rid of the stiffness in her neck from sitting still for so long, she realized that somehow, she had walked down the stairs and into the basement. Odd, she didn't even remember there being a basement at all, let alone deciding to go down there ... Or even opening the door so that she could ... As she absently puzzled how she managed to get there without walking down the stairs she didn't remember descending, Taniyama Mai rounded the corner around some dusty shelves and stopped dead in her tracks.

There was no way she was seeing what she thought she was seeing. Clearly her eyes were playing tricks on her or something. Rubbing at her brown eyes, Mai looked again. Nope; it was still there. That strange white sparkle in the light; it wasn't quite a wisp of smoke, but you could probably call it that. Strange, sparkly white smoke that wasn't affected by the moving air even when the oscillating fan blew in that direction. _That can't ... That can't be a will-o-wisp... I can't see those ... _was all Mai could think as she backed up a partial step. Blinking a few more times, it still didn't disappear. In fact, it moved closer to her, which was even stranger behavior. Normally, at best a spirit in that form would run away, or lead you somewhere, but ... They weren't really supposed to come near someone unless it was going to-

Uh oh.

By the time Mai realized what was happening, it was far too late. The little white wisp of smoke headed straight for her, and had touched her chest. Then it was inside of her - and the high school student blacked out, falling to the floor of the basement where no one would hear her.

**Tsu zu ku …**

**(To be Continued)**

Footnotes:

1 – in Japanese, "yosh" is the shortened, more informal form of the word "Yoshi", which means "ok" or "alright"; it's usually a pretty energetic, positive agreement.

2 – "Hisashiburi ne" is what you say when you haven't heard from someone in a while. It literally means "it's been a long time, hasn't it?"


	3. Case 1: The Sayama Incident

**A/N****:** So funny story; technically I should be working on my GetBackers fanfic right now because that is the next fic in order of how I usually post. But I got so many reviews on this one, I decided to write this chapter instead. Entirely because reviews are my biggest motivator, and you guys gave me a bunch rapid fire when I posted this. It was insane; like 5 in the first 24hours or something xD So I figured why not? If this is what you want, then this is what I'll write.

So yeah, by popular demand, here's your next chapter! ;) If you want more chapters faster, leave me reviews. They are my favorite treat, and I promise I will update sooner if you do (case in point)!

**Also as a note: Rating was upped from K to K+ due to (slightly) graphic violence.**

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Case 1, Chapter 3: The Sayama Incident

.

_It was dark, and cold ... Mai didn't know where she was or what was going on, only that she was afraid. Afraid, and she couldn't move her body. Strange; it was so dark - she didn't remember it being this dark. But then, she couldn't remember where she was at all. How long had she been here ...? It seemed like she had been here for a long time - hours? Days? Weeks? She wasn't sure. Mai's head turned as she looked down at her legs, which were sprawled out in front of her haphazardly. Without making any attempt, somehow she just knew she couldn't move them ... Couldn't move from this spot at all. Calling for help wouldn't work; her mouth was gagged with a rag that had the sharp, pungent smell of fertilizer. And because it was right under her nose, that made it all the more foul; her nose still wasn't used to it, even after all this time had passed. However much time had passed._

_There were footsteps. Her head raised again, and in the darkness she could barely make out a form that was coming towards her. His shoes padded rhythmically on the ground; it was one of the few sounds she had heard recently. And it was one that made her heart leap into her throat. So much terror gripped her so suddenly she could hardly breathe - not that she wanted to with this rag in her mouth. Her body tried to curl up, tried to respond to her mind's frantic pleas to make herself smaller, and maybe she would be less of a target. But to no avail; it didn't matter how big or small she was - he knew she was there, and nothing would change that.  
_

_He was angry. This frightened her even more; she could feel her insides start to twist around, as if she wanted to vomit from the terror and apprehension that coursed through her. He was muttering, cursing about something - money maybe? It was hard to understand the words. There was pain in her head as a large hand reached down and grabbed her by the hair, wrenching her head back so hard it felt like he was going to pull it out of her scalp ... She heard a small, muffled voice that she realized was her own. Then came the first angry hit, striking her hard in the face and knocking her head to the side. Then another, and another.  
_

_More swearing now; he was still angry, angrier than he ever had been before. And he was taking it out on her. Blow after blow rained down on her face, her neck, her shoulders ... The pain was almost numbing as her body over, her head hitting the floor, and she heard herself hope quietly, /Maybe I'll pass out ... Then the pain would stop .../ But then there was fear; fear that she would never wake up if she fell unconscious ... And that fear wouldn't let her fall into the darkness. _

_/I don't want to die ... Please save me ... I don't want to die./ the quiet, wheezy little thought meandered through her head as she felt her school uniform being displaced, and her body violently moved as the beating continued ... Eventually, she realized she was hearing something else; not her own tears, and not the sound of something hitting her flesh repeatedly, or the angry, vulgar words being spat at her ... Through this blinding pain, it sounded like a faint buzzing sort of sound ... Straining to make it out a little better, she recognized eventually that the sounds were words. Quick, rhythmic words that sounded like a familiar pattern; almost like ... Houshou's kuji-in. (1) But that meant that ..._

Slowly, Mai managed to drag her eyes open, and everything on the other side of them was a bright blinding white; it such a harsh contrast to the deep blackness she had been shrouded in that to Mai it was almost blinding. And then, the fear and pain that had wedged itself into her body and seeped under her skin slowly began to abate as that light took over her vision, and eventually ... Eventually it was dark again, but not so that she couldn't see anything. There was an overhead light on, but it wasn't as bright as that blinding white had been ... She realized this as she opened her eyes slowly once again, and made a disoriented noise.

"Mai? Mai!? Are you alright!?" Almost absently, Mai recognized the voice as Ayako's, but it felt like it was coming through a screen, or some kind of strange filter. Her eyelids felt like lead as she tried to look around, and dimly made out nearby faces. Lin, Ayako, Houshou ... Naru. Blinking slowly, she went to ask why Ayako and Houshou were there; they had left as far as she knew. But she paused with a wince before she could do more than open her mouth. Mai had tried to shift slightly to see better when she'd gone to speak, and her entire body felt like one giant _ache_. Especially her face. Frowning slightly, this had never really happened to her before after she was possessed by something. And yes, it didn't take a genius to put two and two together; that was clearly what had happened to her, and she remembered it all. Lucky that she was so tired and in pain, so the shock hadn't set in yet that she had just experienced someone getting a terrible beating ... In response to the question she had been asked, Mai nodded unsteadily.

"Yeah; I'm ok ... I just feel like I hit my head or something ..." realizing belatedly she was complaining, the brunette laughed a little and immediately followed the statement with, "so you probably should look for whatever I broke with it, huh?" Bou-san tried to smile at that as he crouched down next to her, and gently put a hand on her shoulder, which made her suck in a breath and recoil slightly. He frowned and immediately took his hand away.

"You might have ... Can't really tell down here, but your eyes look ok so ... Come on; let's get you upstairs ..." Glancing around without moving her head, she realized she was in the basement. When had she gotten there ...? She hadn't even known there w_as _a basement in this house. The brunette had been all over the upstairs setting up equipment and spending time with Chieko and her husband. The question of a downstairs below the first floor had never come up. Lin or Naru must have set the cameras up down here, because she saw two of them, and a microphone, so it wasn't like the place had been forgotten or anything; it had just gone unmentioned. Which wasn't a rare occurrence; a lot of the time they neglected to mention a lot of things to Mai, including important case details ...

Mai didn't get much say in whether or not she was going upstairs - Bou-san gingerly picked the girl up and just started walking off with her, carrying the brunette upstairs. Not that she was going to complain because she wasn't. The youngest girl present was sure she was perfectly capable of walking, but ... something was odd about this. It had been a pretty substantial a lie when she'd tried to act like she was totally fine. With the way her body was aching, maybe the ghost that had taken over her body was normally bigger than she was, so it had stretched her out a little ...? If only Mai were so lucky; she would have liked to be a little taller ... Though to be fair, this pain felt nothing like growing pains, so she severely doubted it

It was all very strange, or so she thought to herself as she was taken upstairs and laid on the small couch in the room where all of the equipment was set up to distribute it's readings. Thinking back, Mai realized she could remember every detail of what had happened. The whole thing. Normally she could only remember parts and pieces. Feelings, and images, maybe sometimes words or a scattered phrase, but ... This had been much more clear. She hadn't been able to see much but ... She had heard a lot, and had certainly felt a lot as well.

Not only could she remember it, but it was _easy_ to remember; she didn't need to think about it hard at all to call up what she'd seen. It was as if it had really happened to her personally, and only a few moments ago, as morbid as that thought was ... Blinking, half lidded brown eyes landed on Naru's face as he sat down in the chair next to the monitors, facing her. Even though he had such a mean personality, Mai never could disagree with the fact that he had a handsome face, no matter how much she wanted to. And, she even knew what it looked like when he smiled, though to be fair her memory was of Eugene, and not really Naru ... But they were so similar; even though she knew the truth behind the Dream-Naru it was easy to forget, especially when she was tired like this ...

"Your face." ... Until he said something rude in his disinterested, sharp tone of voice that immediately made her defensive. Then she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was Naru, not the kind spirit of his twin that had helped her so many times. Mai's head snapped up as the words of her employer knocked her out of her slow reverie, and she glared at him, ignoring the pain in said face in favor of properly expressing her annoyance.

"You know, not everything has to be about everyone's faces, Mr. Narcissist!" Mai crowed, crossing her arms over her chest and turning away, thoroughly irritated at the two words the dark haired college student had uttered. Though to be fair ... If she thought about it for a second, she didn't fully understand what he was getting on about. She had just automatically gotten defensive, since normally when Naru said something to her it was an insult, but what _about_ her face ...?

"No - Mai ... he means your face ... it's ... you're injured," Ayako spoke very gently when she said this, sitting on the edge of the small couch Mai had been laid on and reaching into her purse to pull out a small compact mirror, which she opened and showed to the younger girl. True to her words, Ayako was right; it looked like someone had hit the brunette a few good times in the face. Nothing was broken or displaced or anything like that, but her face and neck were littered with ugly brown and green bruises, as if she had been attacked a week ago, and the evidence was beginning to heal and fade. Staring at the reflection, her brown eyes widened; no one had assaulted her, and she was sure she hadn't fallen down the stairs or anything, at least not as far as she knew! She had just ... She had just been possessed. Been possessed and afraid and beaten ...

Beaten almost to death.

_Oh my gosh ... The spirit that possessed me ... The one that was so afraid; she must have died alone and afraid and in pain ..._ Mai's shocked expression didn't do much to calm anyone's nerves at all. _I wonder what happened ... Did it live here before it died ...? _The brunette nearly dropped the compact as she looked into it without seeing her reflection, partially from her contemplation, and partially because of how tired she was. Normally Mai didn't get so exhausted when she was possessed; it was like she could hardly keep her eyes open ... It was all very strange ... And now she was starting to get a bit hazy again. It was almost like something was making her fall asleep, and dimly she realized this as her brown eyes closed, and she slowly drifted off.

She was asleep before she heard the compact slide out of her hand and to the floor.

* * *

_It was dark again. And Mai could hear someone crying. The darkness was still oppressive; it pushed down on Mai, trapping her, just like it had before. This time the brunette was already exhausted; she didn't even feel like she had the energy to blink, let alone look around ... But she knew she had to. Whoever it was, she didn't want to leave them alone and crying like that._

_/Why are you crying ...?/ She asked softly, but she didn't move to get up, and she didn't try to open her eyes. The question was quiet, but at the same time, she knew that it would be heard. And it was; the quiet sobbing stopped after a few moments ... And that painfully quiet, tiny voice responded.  
_

_/I ... can't leave./ Mai smiled a little; that wasn't true. She wasn't sure how she knew, but she did._

_/Yes you can; you don't have to be afraid ... I know something bad happened to you, but that's over now. It won't happen to you again ... There's nothing keeping you here./_

_/But there is. He is keeping me here. I can't leave because of him./ At these words, the brunette's smile settled into more of a frown. She still couldn't see whoever or whatever was speaking to her.  
_

_/Who ...?/ Mai waited for a response, but after a long pause, she knew she wasn't going to get an answer. So instead she said gently, /No one can keep you here ... You don't have to stay; in fact, you shouldn't. There is a much better place you should go to, where you won't be afraid, or in pain ... ... It sounds nice, doesn't it? If you stop hiding and being so afraid, you can go ... /_

_She felt something then ... It was a hand, almost the same size as hers, and it was slowly taking her hand. Slowly, Mai managed to turn towards it, and for a moment she saw a grotesque image. Someone who had been beaten, very badly; the face was swollen and bloody, and so badly injured Mai could hardly tell that it was a face ... The bones were gnarled and displaced, teeth were missing ... The hand holding Mai's was twisted and broken into the wrong shape; so was one of the figure's legs. But Mai didn't recoil; she wasn't even upset. She just smiled, squeezing the hand in hers gently and crouching down so she was closer to where it sat on the floor. It seemed ... surprised at the response, though only vaguely as it watched Mai. Eventually, it whispered fearfully, _

_/No I can't ... can I ...?/_

_/Mmhmm. I promise. Whoever it was, he can't hurt you any more. You don't need to be afraid./ At those words, a faint glow gently started to surround the figure holding Mai's hand ... It wasn't exactly pushing the darkness away - it was almost as if the darkness was slowly letting go of her of it's own accord. After a moment, the figure smiled back ... Before suddenly it looked like a young girl; she had a pretty face with short hair very similar Mai's, and she was wearing a dark, old fashioned sailor fuku. (2) The now-teenager, who was probably around the same age as the girl that was living, stood slowly then._

_/Really? ... You're sure ...?/_

_/Yes; I promise,/ Mai said with a nod, standing as well, /you can go now - you don't have to be afraid anymore./ _

_/... Thank you ... for letting me go .../ She said softly with a slight bow of her head, though strangely, it seemed like she wasn't looking at Mai. It almost seemed like she was talking to something just behind Mai ... But then the girl let go of the brunette's hand and slowly floated upwards, disappearing into the light that had been becoming steadily brighter. Mai's smiled even more as she waved her now empty hand, glad that the poor girl could find peace ... But she paused as the light faded, and she felt something strangely cold behind her.  
_

_Glancing over her shoulder, she didn't see anything in that oppressive darkness, which was slowly starting to roll back in to fill up the empty space that the light had left behind, but ... It felt like someone was watching her, like it did when she had first arrived at this house ... The feeling was almost ... Hungry ..._

_Like it wanted her ... _

* * *

"-ma Jiken." Mai didn't realize that she had been smiling in her sleep, until the last few moments before it had faltered and started to turn into a frown. Unfortunately, neither did anyone else. However, she did slowly realize that she was starting to wake up because she was hearing a voice. Naru's voice, to be precise.

Making a quiet noise, the brunette winced at the bright light in the room. She must have fallen asleep ... Had she been dreaming? She couldn't remember. It probably didn't matter though; Naru had been saying something in his normal speaking voice, and so he probably didn't care if he woke her or not. So, since he didn't care that he'd bothered her, she didn't care that she wasn't part of the original conversation, and proceeded to interject before anyone could ask her if she was alright or something.

"The what?" Adjusting herself slightly, she didn't know how long she had been asleep for - she didn't even really remember nodding off at all ... There was a blanket over her though, so it must have been more than a minute or two. Pushing herself into a sitting position, she valiantly swallowed the wince that tried to break out over her face; it still felt like her body was one giant bruise, for whatever reason. Really, she couldn't shake that pain, especially in her face and head. It ... Well, it felt like she had actually been hit all of those times she'd felt it while she was possessed. It was so weird that she was still aching like this after being possessed like that, feeling like she herself had been beaten ...

"… Sayama Jiken." (3) The underage college student repeated himself with a roll of his eyes that the high schooler missed. Blinking, Mai set her fingers lightly against her temple, brown eyes closing in something like vague irritation. She didn't have time for him to play coy; her head and face hurt, her body ached, she was tired and a little bit grumpy, which seldom ever happened ... Mai either wanted to know what Naru was talking about, or she was going to -

Wait.

Wait a second.

The Sayama Incident.

She realized suddenly that she didn't _need_ Naru to explain it to her. Well, not entirely. She knew what the Sayama Incident was; Mai was _sure_ she knew what it was. When she had been spending time at the library ... At one point she had gone into the newspaper archives on a whim; mostly because that was something detectives do, and she had never been in the archives before, even though they were open to the public. So, she had decided she wanted to know what it was like. Now that the mystery was solved it was unfortunately far less romanticized or dramatic than most movies made it out to be ...

But the Sayama Incident. The brunette had scrolled through images of old headlines, and she remembered reading something. At the moment she was still tired and sort of wanted to go back to sleep, but they were on a case; she didn't even remember falling asleep ... And she didn't remember dreaming, so obviously it was completely useless for her to try napping for clues. But if she could contribute to the conversation, then she would be useful ... Pushing herself up, she ignored Ayako's protests that she should lay down because she was injured, and instead tried to remember what she had glanced at in the newspaper article.

"Wasn't that about a girl that was abducted ...?" Mai asked after a moment's pause, tone of voice bleary as she tried to call up the details that for whatever reason she was having difficulty bringing to the forefront of her mind. Ayako stopped trying to coddle the brunette for a moment, and there was a collective pause as everyone seemed surprised that the injured girl who normally didn't add much learned knowledge to any given case had spoken up. She didn't see Bou-san nod, since he was standing slightly behind her near the door, but she turned towards him when he started to answer.

"I remember hearing about it way after the fact when I was in school; it happened in the 60s, I think. A schoolgirl was kidnapped and ransomed in Sayama Prefecture. I think the money wasn't paid, or they tried to pay the ransom and the police came to catch the culprit ... Something like that. The deal went badly, and later her body was found ..." he trailed off slightly as he looked at Mai, as if realizing something, before continued slowly and grimly, "... she had been beaten to death ..." Ayako also turned towards Mai as Houshou recounted the end of tail quietly, and Mai winced. That sounded pretty awful ... And it definitely seemed to line up with she had seen when she was possessed.

"A pig farmer was wrongfully sent to prison for almost thirty years for her murder, Lin was the next one to speak, reading from the computer screen, "the real abductor was never found. The girl's name was Nakata Yoshie, and she was 16 at the time." Apparently he'd done a search while Houshou was talking. Pausing in his reading, he glanced at Mai and asked, "didn't you say you asked the spirit that spoke to you when we first entered the house what it's name was? You said that it started to say 'alright' to answer another question, but that could have been the victim beginning to answer the first question ... It might have been saying 'Yoshie'." Oh; well that ... Actually made some sense, she supposed. Mai had asked a few questions at once, and the first question had been for the spirit's name ... The brunette just might not have waited long enough for the answer to-

"Go home, Mai." The brunette that was addressed by the statement jumped, not exactly from the words themselves, but from the sharp, harsh tone they were suddenly barked with. It felt like she was being yelled at for dropping and breaking a tea pot or something; but she hadn't done anything. Hell, for once she had known what they were talking about, and had even _contributed_ to the conversation.

"Wh ... What?" her voice was small, and disbelieving. He couldn't be telling her to leave ... But Naru didn't sound like he was telling her to go back and get something, or go to get the bruises checked out or something. He sounded ... He sounded like he was angry at her ... But why? Why would he be mad? He normally was curt when he spoke her, yes, and sometimes even mean with his callousness ... but it sounded like she had legitimately angered in some way; like he was disgusted and irritated with her all at once ... Was it because she had been possessed? It's not like it was her _fault _\- she didn't _ask_ the spirit to body-jack her! And besides, injured or not, if it was the same girl from the Sayama Incident that was trapped in the house, then if anything Mai had _helped_-

"You heard me. Go home. Lin will take you." She shook her head slightly in disbelief, staring at him like he had two heads. Unbelievable; he was dismissing her from their first case in months because he thought she was too weak to continue helping. Because she wouldn't be useful to the job the way she was. It was just a few _bruises_ for pity's sake! To be fair it did hurt, a lot actually, and she wasn't sure why she had marks left over; she had experienced a spirit's pain before and it had never left any physical evidence on her ...

But that didn't matter to her right now.

What mattered was that Naru was being completely unreasonable and unfair! There was no reason she couldn't sit around and look at monitors or something; he didn't need to send her away like this ... Especially when she was perfectly happy to muscle through any pain; she was perfectly happy to just grin and bear it. Mai just wanted to keep working for SPR. She wanted to keep going on cases, seeing everyone. Working with everyone. Spending time with everyone ... ...

Spending time with her family; the only family she had ever really known.

The worst part of all of this was that no one was standing up for her; no one was arguing with what Naru said, as if he was the reigning monarch and what he said was some sort of law ... Glancing back and forth at the other occupants of the room, Bou-san and Ayako looked as stunned by the teenager's command as she was, but Lin was already putting his coat on, all set to just do whatever it was Naru told him to. Hell, Lin probably _agreed_ with him! ... ... No; no this was stupid. This wasn't _fair_ \- she could be useful. She _could_! He wasn't even giving her a chance! Or maybe ... Maybe he thought she had already _served_ her purpose - now that that they knew who the ghost was, it probably wouldn't be hard to exorcise it from the house. So now that she had outlived her usefulness, he didn't need her anymore. None of them needed her anymore.

"Mai, don't cry-" Ayako started to say even as the brunette felt a tear roll down her face. That made everything even _more_ frustrating, because Mai was only proving Naru right, wasn't she? She was crying like a baby, and in front of all of them ...They probably all thought she couldn't handle this; that she should go home because she was a little bruised and banged up, and she should let the adults and smart people handle the rest ... Her hands curled in the fabric of the blanket that was still covering her legs at the thought, another tear sneaking out past her eyes, which she had clenched shut at some point.

"Naru!" Mai heard Bou-san's scolding tone of voice, and for a moment it made her feel better.

"You heartless jerk, look what you've done - she's-" Ayako jumped in as well, but Naru interrupted almost immediately.

"Done here, and going home." That voice; the tone of finality ... Mai couldn't_ stand_ that he'd made up his mind, and no one matter what anyone said, no one would change it. He was just tossing her to the curb now that she couldn't help anymore. Suddenly, Mai pushed the blanket off of herself and jumped up from where she had been laying in their base of operations, sprinting out of the room and ignoring the calls of her name that followed her.

Fine.

If he wanted her gone then she would just go.

The high school student had no idea where she was running to; she hadn't gotten farther than 'away from Naru'. In fact, she was upset enough that she didn't even notice the intense feeling of being watched that hit her as soon as she set foot out of the base of operations. The intense, sick, _dreadful_ feeling she had felt when they'd first arrived was back, and it was coupled with something - a presence, tracking her every movement ... It was almost ... hungry.

Like it wanted her.

**Tsu zu ku …**

**(To be Continued)**

Footnotes:

1 – Kuji-in is the mantra-chant-thing that Houshou uses to exorcise spirits; it sounds something like "On nōmaku sanmanda basaradan kan". The chants are never translated because they are supposed to be written in Sanskrit.

2 – Just in case you don't know, a Sailor Fuku is a sailor uniform; it's the style of school uniform girls wear in Japan.

3 – "The Sayama Incident". This is a real thing that happened in Sayama in 1963. Keep reading for a bit of an explanation about it, but if you want to know more a quick search will bring up info on it.


	4. Case 1: PK

**A/N****:** Again with all of the reviews! You guys are awesome ;D Keep reviewing like you do, and you may secure something like weekly updates, which is pretty much unprecedented from me! xD Sorry this installment is slightly short; that's just the way it turned out following my notes. The next one will be longer to make up for it; I already have it started xD

Oh, and PS - I'm really sorry the last chapter had so many typos; I'm planning on editing it and re-uploading it as soon as I have a chance. I just wanted to get it posted as quickly as possible for you guys, so I kind of half assed the beta reading part. I'll try not to let it happen again!

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Case 1, Chapter 4: PK

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Making it out the front door, Mai slowed to a stop, breath coming in slightly short pants as she stood there, just outside the door and slightly past the front step. She couldn't hear any footsteps behind her, which meant that no one was chasing after her ... However, to be fair she couldn't really go anywhere anyway, since the high school student didn't know her way around the neighborhood they were in. Mai didn't even know where the train station was, so she couldn't even try to go home by herself without someone at least taking her that far. _See? He's right ... _Mai thought sadly to herself, turning to look back at the house. _I am totally useless ... ...?_ The thought trailed off questioningly as the brunette stopped. Something was wrong. All of a sudden she could feel something; a sort of ... presence ...

And it made her skin crawl.

Hesitantly, she glanced around the house, in the windows, around the outside ... And then in the open doorway she had just come through. Honestly, in retrospect she wouldn't be sure who or what she saw; there was a form there, and it could have easily been Lin or Houshou because of their size and stature... Perhaps it was something else altogether, but either way it didn't matter because she was filled with such a sudden fear and dread that it literally made her dizzy. Hazily, her brown eyes made out that it was starting to move towards her, and that feeling surged up even harder. Staggering, Mai blindly stumbled, turning around as if she were in a pitch black room and using her hands to navigate before taking off at a dead run as hard as she could. She had no idea what it was or why she was even reacting this way; all she knew was that she needed to get as far away from it as quickly as possible or she would miss her chance to escape. And the even stranger thing was that she felt like she had been captured, or held against her will in some way ... And maybe had snuck out ...? Even though she knew that wasn't the case of course ... Mai couldn't shake the feeling churning in her stomach and in her head.

She didn't even hear herself scream as she sprinted down the walk as fast as she could, skidding around the van and nearly colliding with a lamp post as she took off. She didn't look over her shoulder or slow down as she went, blindly weaving around corners back and forth. This was a true panicked sprint - she well and truly had no idea where she was going or even where she had come from. All she knew was that if she could still feel that coveting, almost _salivating_ presence looming behind her, she was going to keep running until it went away or one of her lungs burst ...

* * *

Mai wasn't sure how long she had been running, or even where precisely she had gone ... It looked like she was on the edge of some kind of small public park, or at least she realized this when she had a chance to look around. What she did know definitively was that her lungs burned and her entire body still ached fiercely, though that that wasn't entirely from the brisk run she had just partaken in. _How long did I run for ...?_ The high school student caught herself thinking this as she glanced around. She wasn't sure where she was - it was the same neighborhood, of course, but ... She didn't really know her way around. However, one thing was for sure; she had gotten away from that creepy feeling that almost seemed to crawl under her skin unpleasantly, which was the only reason she was allowing herself to pause and catch her breath at all.

Bending at the waist, she put her hands on her knees, attempting to slow her racing heart and catch her breath. It wasn't like she was particularly athletic, and it was dark outside, so the night air was cold her her throat and against her skin. It appeared that the brunette had slowed to a stop underneath a lit street lamp, the cone of light illuminating the sidewalk that ran along the grass on the edge of the park and beneath her feet, as well as her. _How long was I asleep for ...?_ She started to think in question to herself; at best it had been sunset when she had been relieved of her position staring at monitors and readings in their base and had wandered around, only to subsequently become possessed ... And she hadn't been running for that long, had she ...? However, the thought stopped short when she shivered violently, grabbing at her arms reflexively and hugging herself. It wasn't because of a sudden breeze or anything; now that she had finally stopped running once again and was thinking about it ... It felt like she was being watched. Or followed. Or ... something. Both maybe.

The feeling wasn't as intense as what she felt at the house; it wasn't quite as sickening, but ... It was there. Almost like it was lurking directly behind her ...

Looking over her shoulder nervously, Mai didn't expect to see anything there ... So you can imagine her surprise when there was in fact something in that space. It was a small round ball, something like a swirling puff of smoke ... But it was dark, not like the one she had seen earlier before being possessed. The will-o-wisp that she couldn't see; had never been able to see before. Why on earth was she seeing it now? It was plain as day in front of her; the light inside of it was dull, and seemed to almost shift and move through it even as it held relatively still. Unlike the wisp that had turned out to most likely be Nakata Yoshie though, it wasn't a gentle white color - no, this will-o-wisp was a dull gray, almost black, like a storm cloud ... Which put Mai even more on edge; it meant that the likelihood it was benevolent was slim ...

It started to stretch and twist ... Almost as if it were reaching out towards her, and that made the hair on the back of Mai's neck stand on end. Turning to start running again, the brunette took off into the park this time. Logic would have dictated to her that she go back towards the house, or even just towards the houses lining the street across the park; _something_ other than going deeper into a more secluded area. Not that Taniyama Mai thought she was living in a horror movie right now, but it didn't matter either way. It was almost like something was making her go into the park - almost like it was making her go down a pre-scripted path.

Into the public recreational space she went - past the basketball courts, around trees, through bushes. As she blindly continued forward, Mai had no idea where she was or what was going on. The terror and the sheer _need_ to get away coupled with the frenzy her thoughts had been thrown into was enough that she couldn't stop to think about anything or even consider her actions.

It got to the point that her legs started to shake from exertion; the brunette hadn't thought that the park was big enough for it to get to that point, but either way that didn't matter either. The brunette didn't dare glance over shoulder to see if the spirit was still pursuing her as she continued along the unseen trail. Rather than check, she didn't want to know - at this point she was resolved to run until she couldn't run any more, and at that point just hope that she had gone far enough that it wasn't still on her heels.

Branches scraped her bare legs and pulled at the sleeves of her school uniform, but she ignored them as she pushed through the bushes and jumped over shrubs and small plants. Farther and father away she went, trying to put as much distance as she could between her and that thing - whatever _it_ was. Honestly she still wasn't entirely sure why she was so frantically running away from it, other than knowing for some reason that she _had_ to get away; this was her only chance ...

Eventually though, even the high dose of adrenaline in her system couldn't sustain the wild pace she'd set, and the high school student staggered to a stop, putting a hand on the wall next to her to steady herself. If her lungs burned before, they were _on fire_ now, to say nothing of her raw throat ... She felt like she was going to collapse; Mai had never run so hard before in her life. Still being in pain from being possessed earlier also wasn't helping the running situation any - every hurried, haphazard step she had taken had painfully jarred her entire form. The brunette had ignored it and valiently pressed on through it, but now that she had paused, she realized she wasn't sure if she could even start running again if she wanted to - even if she _needed_ to.

Panting for air, she put her other hand on her thigh to try and keep herself something approaching upright. Thankfully, she wouldn't need to run anymore. It seemed like she had lost the presence, whatever it was-

"... Yoshie ..." A raspy whisper made the brunette freeze, her blood immediately running cold. It sounded like it was right behind her; calling to her. Almost like it was trying to beckon her towards it. Chocolate brown eyes were impossibly wide as she slowly turned, looking over her shoulder in the direction whence the voice had come. How? How was it there ...? It was like it had known where she would go ... Even though she herself had no idea where she had been going. And, had it just called her 'Yoshie'? That was the name of the girl that had been abducted ...

"I'm not Nakata Yoshie! My name is Taniyama Mai - I'm sixteen years old, and I go to a high school that isn't even in this prefecture!" As she spoke she turned to face the spirit that had been pursuing her, but to no avail; it didn't stop or even really acknowledge that she'd spoken to it at all. The brunette backed up a half step as it floated closer; really, it had given her no reason to think that it was going to hurt her or even bother her at all ... But somehow she just had the distinct feeling it didn't have good intentions ... Even though it was only a wisp, so it had no eyes, it felt like it was leering at her.

Another step backwards as it loomed closer to her, and she bumped into the wall behind her, though she hardly noticed - she was busy staring at it. In fact, she was staring so hard into the puff of smoke that she was almost imaging it had a face ... Eyes, a nose, mouth, thin hair ... All of a sudden, to her it looked like a person, a man ... And he was _grinning_ at her, in a twisted sort of way, holding a hand out ... As if he knew she had nowhere else to go; that the last place she wanted to go was with him, but she _had no choice_...

"... Nakata ... Yoshie ..." Another sandpaper-whisper, and it bobbed closer, as if taking an unsteady step towards her. Shaking her head, she tried to back up further, but she couldn't; the wall behind her impeded her retreat. Bringing a hand to her chest, she didn't know what to do. Mai was trembling and frozen and _terrified_, and she had no idea what she was supposed to do. The highschooler's mind was totally blank ... If Eugene were there, he would help. He would know what to do, and he would make sure that she was alright; give her a clue, or teach her how to protect herself from this, this ... _thing_. It wasn't a person; it was so twisted ... unlike any other spirit, no matter how frightening they looked, the twisted _feeling_ this ghost gave her ... _That_ was truly frightening.

As it stood, Mai had nowhere to go; all there was behind her was a corner. When she looked to try and bolt she realized this - and all there was before her was this twisting, writhing, grey-black spirit, still holding its hand out to her as it moved closer with another whisper of 'Nakata Yoshie' ...

Shrinking down where the two walls met behind her, Mai covered her ears with her hands, as if that would somehow stop the spirit from slowly repeating that name over and over again in that languid, frightening way. Looking away from it was hardly an option; it was so close to her that, even though she could see through it like a sheet or a curtain, she could still see the dark greyish-black discoloration that came from it's veil-like, wispy form no matter which way she looked or turned. Trying to run was pointless - she would just run straight into it, and she couldn't imagine that being anything but bad.

And then, a moment later, she realized that she heard something; or maybe felt something ...? It was as if the sound was coming through a fog in her head; at first she wasn't sure she heard anything, and when it repeated again it seemed like it was getting quieter, like it was going further away ... However, somehow Mai knew that wasn't the case. Slowly looking up, brown eyes flickered to looking through the spirit, at the corner of the wall some odd yards away from her ...

If she had had the capacity to feel anymore than she already was, surprise and shock would have been added to the list. Around the corner came a familiar narcisist, breathing heavily and slowing to a stop, putting his hand on the wall to steady himself as the spirit once again called her Nakata Yoshie and moved even closer to her. It was like the smoke of the veil it spread over her was trying to choke the girl; it was becoming harder and harder to breathe but ... She needed to get attention. She needed him to notice her; to _see_ her ...

"Naru!" Mai couldn't hear her own voice when she yelled, but it seemed that the dark haired college student heard her, because he turned to face her on the other side of the spirit immediately. She hadn't meant to call for him so desperately, but she was truly afraid that she was going to be badly injured. Or at least, that was what she was telling herself - it was only because she needed help, not because she especially wanted help from _him_...

It felt like there was a pause, or maybe it was more like time was moving in slow motion as he made eye contact with her... His dark eyes grew just a fraction wider when he saw the spirit looming over her, and the next movement was quick and almost without hesitation as one of his hands snapped out, palm out towards the spirit and subsequently Mai. For a moment ... It was almost as if she could _feel_ Naru's presence. Not the fact that he was standing there that short distance away from her but more like ... A blanket wrapped around her or something. Like he was surrounding her ... Or no ... More accurately like it was going _through_ her.

That was the last thing Mai would remember before she collapsed in a dead faint, body sliding onto the ground in an unceremonious heap.

* * *

Taniyama Mai felt as though she was drifting. Through a dark cloud almost; she felt heavy, black, and pendulous [1] ... It almost felt like she was lost in a void. She couldn't move, she couldn't see ... The high school student couldn't even move ... But then there was something ... a light. It was warm, and different somehow. Nice ... And it was almost like it was calling to her. Mai felt herself turning towards it a little as the illumination started to spread across the void. Strangely, it almost felt like it was pulling her; gently guiding her out of the darkness ...

Quietly, she shifted, making a soft noise and trying to force her eyelids open; where was she _now_ ... ? The light wasn't too harsh, but it was enough that her lashes flickered a few times before she managed to look around without her eyes tearing up.

"... Mai!?" Turning towards the sound of her voice, she saw a blurry Houshou, John Brown, Ayako, and Masako standing and sitting around her. Confusion furrowed across the brunette's face as she barely heard the fuss they all started making about her being awake and having opened her eyes. Instead, she was more interested in figuring out just where she was ... It took her haze addled brain a few moments to register that actually, she was laying in a bed. And, judging by the side rails, white curtain hanging from the ceiling, windows ...

Wait a second ...

Was she in a hospital ...?

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**Tsu zu ku …**

**(To be Continued)**

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Footnotes:

1 - why yes, that _was_ an accidental Rocky Horror Picture Show reference, and no I am not ashamed. xD


	5. Case 1: Cured

**A/N****:** Here we have the official end of the first case in this fanfic, and another chapter for my lovely reviewers ;) Also, speaking of reviewers, just a quick reminder; I love constructive criticism as much as the next author, but if you're going to tell me I'm terrible for publishing the first chapter of this a year ago and only posting 4 chapters since then, please do keep in mind that those 4 subsequent chapters have been weekly updates for the past month, and I'm reasonably certain there is nothing terrible about that.

However, if you think weekly updates _are_ terrible, I can just go back to updating once a year or so ... ^^;;

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Case 1, Chapter 5: Cured

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"Wh ... What's going on?" the brunette managed to get out, trying to look at all of the people standing in the room. It didn't seem like Lin or Naru were present, and that really shouldn't have been a surprise ... But it was frustrating that it still made her heart sink a little. Even when she was in the hospital with no idea what happened, he couldn't be bothered to show his face.

"We got here after you did, so we're not really sure," Ayako said, sitting down on the bed next to her and taking her hand. "How do you feel?" Mai paused a moment to really consider how she felt; the answer was a resounding 'alright'. Admittedly a little worse than after she'd been possessed, but in a different way. Now her whole body ached, but it was strangely internal instead of the external, largely superficial injuries she had sustained. Truthfully her head was the worst offender in the pain department, but the high school student valiantly ignored it as she shrugged a shoulder nonchalantly and said something about being okay. Honestly she wasn't entirely sure she was believed, at least not by Ayako and Houshou, who gave her slightly skeptical looks; John Brown mostly just seemed happy as he breathed a sigh - presumably in relief at her admission, so she probably at least had him fooled. Masako was looking out the window, not at the brunette in the bed, and seemed a little distant ... Mai doubted the girl was even hearing anything that was being said anyway.

"The four of us split up to look for you, and Naru found you," came the explanation, "he said you were being chased by a spirit - do you remember that?" Blinking as Bou-san questioned her gently, Mai thought about it for a few moments - what _did_ she remember ...? Thinking about it, all she could remember was running ... Which must have been because she was being chased, like Houshou said? But what _else_? At some point she must have stopped or else she would have just passed out form exertion-wait a second.

After another second of consideration, she realized that she was pretty sure she _had_ passed out, hadn't she? She had come to a stop ... because she was cornered ... And Naru. Mai had seen Naru. Had he helped her ...? She couldn't remember, but he must have. And she definitely remembered passing out - fainting, maybe? Which only made her soul sink even lower. If that was the case then Naru had seen everything; Naru was there when she'd fainted. That was probably why he wasn't there in the hospital room now - he probably had no time for someone so feeble. _Great job Mai; first case in months and you managed to black out, not once, but twice_ ... Keeping the frown off of her face as she mentally berated herself just a little, she let out a breath, and found herself quietly, desperately hoping that she wasn't going to lose her job at SPR over this.

"... ... sort of ..." she relented slowly before adding thoughtfully, "... but, how did Naru find me?" The inquiry occurred to her after some thought. The brunette knew that she had been running hard, long, and sporadically in her panic - so how could he have managed to track her down? There hadn't been any rhyme or reason to what direction she had taken as far as she'd known - she had been in such a panic that she probably wouldn't have been able to stop and make logical decisions if she had wanted to. Maybe he just happened across her ...? Somehow that seemed unlikely; when Naru was in the right place at the right time, it was never coincidence - it was, infuriatingly, always by his own design.

"He said ..." It was Masako who spoke this time, hesitantly. For some reason her voice was so distant, and she didn't turn to face the room when she spoke - instead, she continued staring out the window as she continued, "he found you where they found Nakata Yoshie's body buried in the 60s. The farm that she was discovered next to was purchased a few decades ago by the government and developed into the apartments next to the park that he found you near." Mai frowned slightly, and was about to ask the black haired girl what was wrong ... But decided that perhaps it would be better to ask when everyone wasn't around. If it was something personal, Hara-san (1) was more likely to clam up when there were a lot of people and get defensive or snarky.

"Wait but ... so, what spirit was chasing me? It wasn't Yoshie ... Was it?" That didn't seem right to Mai somehow even as she said it. That spirit that had possessed her wasn't weak - but it was frightened and very scattered. Whatever had been chasing Mai had been ... Well, in a word focused. Focused on her, to the point that it made her skin crawl now just thinking about what it felt like when whatever it was had been nearby. There was a reasonably long silence as Mai waited for Masako to explain, but she said nothing - only continued to look out the window, as if she had said all she meant to.

"No; we searched the house high and low, but there was no sign of her spirit anywhere ..." Houshou explained, crossing his arms and frowning a little in thought. "Naru seems to think she was exorcised somehow, maybe from you experiencing what she did or something like that. Either way, her spirit wasn't attached to the house any more."

"But then ..." Mai's expression turned puzzled. Even if the spirit had left the house to chase her, it still would have most likely been anchored to it, since that was the place that it had been haunting regularly. "That doesn't make any sense. If Yoshie wasn't chasing me, then what was ...?"

"At that point we think we were dealing with the spirit of the real culprit ... The one who actually kidnapped, ransomed, and killed Nakata Yoshie." Mai's brown eyes turned to Ayako as the older woman spoke, the statement clearly not alleviating the high school student's confusion.

"So there were ... two spirits?" the question was slow, because the brunette wasn't sure she had come to the right conclusion at all ... But it was the only thing that made sense if what Ayako said was true - Yoshie had possessed her, but this second ghost had gone after her ...?

"Yes, it seems so," Houshou continued the sentiment this time, still keeping his slightly thoughtful, brooding expression, "there was the spirit of the girl, Nakata Yoshie, and the spirit of her abductor. A Mononoke and an onryō."

"A mononoke ... and an onryō...?" (2) Mai's face scrunched slightly; normally with two spirits in one place, only one was strong enough, or dominant enough to become something that could interact with the living so directly - one preyed off of the other one(s) and became stronger for it - they had seen it quite a few times in their cases, so ... "I understand the abductor was onryō, but ... how was the other one ... Mononoke? She didn't _mean_ to cause me any pain or suffering -"

"Naru says that she did," Houshou interrupted her gently before continuing, "and I think I agree with him. It's an old idea, but you know the superstition that the only way to truly be rid of a sickness or an ailment is to inflict it on someone else? Almost like it is something you give away so that you are rid of it?" Mai will nod slowly; she had heard that old wives' tale before, but what did that have to do with this case? "Well, with spirits there is a little bit of truth to that. Most of the time popular culture gets things wrong, but ... Have you heard of the movie 'Ringu'?"

She didn't really _like_ horror movies, so Mai hadn't seen it herself, but it was a title she knew about, if only through hearsay from the halls of her high school. However, before she could say as much, Ayako frowned at Houshou's comparison, and interjected,

"In the movie, if you watch a certain video, there is a curse put on you. The only way to break the curse is to make a copy of the video and curse someone else - that is, to make them watch the video." (3) Mai nodded slowly as she listened to the more detailed explanation, still not sure what this had to do with anything ... Until suddenly, it dawned on her. Cursing someone else so that the misfortune leaves you ...

"You don't mean ... You think she possessed me so that the other spirit would come after me instead of hurting her!?" Houshou nodded solemnly at her words, watching her face as he did so.

"Yes. That is _exactly_ what I mean." Normally, this would probably be some sort of cause to become angry or hurt - in effect she was being told that she had just been used by a spirit for it's own personal gain but ... At the same time ... Mai wasn't upset. And it must have showed on her face, because at first, Bou-san and Ayako seemed to be holding their breaths, waiting for a reaction from her that never came. Eventually, she spoke just to break the silence.

"... I'm sure it wasn't personal. She was alone and afraid, and in pain for all of that time. If there was a way for it to end, then I don't blame her for taking it, no matter what the consequences were." For a moment, everyone looked at Mai except for Masako, who was still looking intently out the window as if all the secrets of the universe were just on the other side of its panes. Eventually, Houshou and Ayako smiled, and John Brown laughed.

"That's just like you, Mai," he said in his funny accent as the laughter died down, though the smile on his face didn't even start to fade. With a fond look at her, he continued, "you always manage to find the good in something ... Even something that put you in the hospital for a few days." At the statement, that was likely supposed to be a compliment, Mai abruptly stopped as the smile fell off of her face. What was that about a few _days_ ...?

"Wait a second - _how long_ have I been here!?" wide brown eyes were staring in abject horror at John Brown, as the blond Australian was the one to mention a number of _days_. He looked very confused at her outburst, and after staring at Mai for a few moments, he recounted,

"Two and a half days or so ...?" All of the color drained from her face. She had been unconscious for that long!? Sitting bolt upright, she immediately started to cause a fuss about being discharged from the hospital. Mai couldn't care less about missing school - if she had been in the hospital for that long then that meant it was the middle of the day on Monday, so she had missed class - she was up in arms because instead of being in a place that was free, like say her apartment or at school, she was in a place that was decidedly expensive - a hospital. And, to top it all off, being employed only part time and basically a ward of the prefecture, she didn't really have any health insurance to speak of that would help cover a bill for a hospital stay.

The group tried to calm her down, but she wasn't having it - Mai had just begun to put some money away in a savings account, and now it was all going to disappear because she'd fainted on the job. Great. To be perfectly fair, it seemed as though it may have been something slighlty more serious than a simple swoon if she had been unconscious for a few days, as opposed to a few minutes or hours, but the brunette wasn't thinking of that. She was thinking that she felt alright now, and every second she spend in the hospital equated to her savings dwindling more and more.

Since she was so inconsolable, that even though the doctor expressed that he would've liked to keep her overnight for observation, after he had done several tests to check a few things and found nothing inherently wrong with her, Mai insisted on being released. No one really liked the notion except her, but there wasn't any way for anyone to force her to stay since she wasn't showing any signs of injury ... So, a short while later, the high school student's discharge papers were signed, and she was leaving the room with her belongings. After convincing the group that she was fine, which did take a little time, Houshou offered to give her a ride where she was going - Hara-san murmured something about needing to be somewhere, and John Brown said that he would part ways with them as well, since he was just going down the street and could walk.

So, Ayako and Houshou went to pick up the monk's vehicle from the parking lot, and that left Mai walking to the front desk of the hospital to take care of the dreaded bill ... The woman at the reception desk smiled and greeted Mai when she approached, and the brunet tried to smile back, even though this transaction was going to do nothing but cause her pain, far more-so than the headache that was threatening to start pounding between her ears.

"Hello. I'm being discharged," she said, offering the paperwork to the woman, who took it with a nod and started typing furiously at they keyboard in front of her. Pausing once she had presumably found the correct file in the system, she clicked a few things with the house before nodding to herself and looking back at the brunette. _Oh boy; here it comes ... _preemptively the brunette flinched slightly, waiting for a number that she was sure was going to depress her for the rest of the week.

"Thank you - you are all set Taniyama Mai. Please take care of yourself." Brown eyes blinked, and the confusion was likely quite evident on her face as she stared at the kindly woman behind the desk that was still smiling back at her. She hadn't said anything about payment. What?

"Wait but ... don't I have a bill to pay ...?" Mai _hated_ to point that fact out, as if that would somehow ruin everything and she would end up paying with most of her soul or something ... But at the same time, it would be far worse if she didn't say anything, it turned out that some wires had been crossed in the system, and she ended up getting collections calls for not paying her hospital bill or something.

"Nope - you are all set to go. The bill for your ambulance ride, stay at the hospital, and medical work has all been paid for." She was completely floored; for a few moments, Mai completely forgot how to speak. Eventually, she managed to stutter out a shocked,

"Wh ... what? How-who ...?" The woman behind the desk clicked a few more times with the mouse, and looked at the screen. After a few moments pause that seemed to drag on forever to the high school student, the woman ultimately explained the lack of a charge.

"Hmm ... It looks like the notes say that this incident was classified as 'work related', so your employer paid all of your fees. Ambulance, lab work, hospital time - everything." Owlish brown eyes continued to stare at the woman, who turned back to Mai and smiled again, "so, like I said, you are all set to leave." This snapped Mai out of it slightly, and in a daze she murmured something along the lines of a 'thank you' before turning and heading towards the front doors to wait for Houshou to pick her up. Her employer had paid for it ...? Technically it _had_ been a work related injury since she was on a case when it happened, but it was just a case of fainting, probably because of the possession that happened earlier or something. It was anyone's guess really ... With her staying for as long as she had in the hospital, apparently having an ambulance ride _and_ medical work done while she was at the hospital ... Even _with_ health insurance the brunette was sure it would have been quite expensive, so she could only imagine what it had cost _without _any kind of insurance.

"You're sure you feel alright?" Ayako was the first one to ask as Mai climbed into the back of Houshou's car after walking in a vague stupor through the automatic doors of the hospital and waiting at the curb where he had pulled up to get her. Shaking her head slightly to clear it, Mai smiled, though it wasn't entirely sincere - not because she wasn't alright, but because she had no idea what to do about this ...

"Yes I'm fine!" she exclaimed with a happy tone before the time on the console in the front of the car happened to catch her attention. This was about the time she normally got out of school and went to the SPR office for work ... "Bou-san? Can you drop me off at the office?" Brown eyes met hers in the rear view mirror.

"Mai ... Are you sure ...? You were just in the hospital for a pretty long while - maybe you should just go home and rest-" She shook her head and cut him off with a characteristic display of energy.

"Nonsense," she waved a hand dramatically in the air, "who would make tea for Lin and Naru? And besides, I feel fine! No reason _not _to go to work." Houshou looked at her for a long moment in the mirror, as if trying to decide what to do ... Before eventually letting out a sigh.

"Alright, alright ... Since I'm sure you'd go there anyway even if I dropped you off at home." Mai nodded with a slightly pleased, cat-like grin before sitting back in her seat and fastening the belt.

* * *

"Tadaima!" (4) Her energetic voice cut through the quiet of the office as she opened the door and let it close unceremoniously behind herself. No use in being quiet - however, to be honest she was a little nervous. She wanted to ask about the hospital bill, but she wasn't sure how to approach Lin or Naru about it ... And when she was nervous she became slightly more boisterous ...

"Mai? Why are you here?" The tone of the voice that greeted her made her stop short, and her typically wide smiled faltered just slightly. Great. Sounded like Naru was in a bad mood, not that that was anything new she supposed. He could act happy to see her though - she _had_ just been in the hospital for a few days. You would think at least knowing she was alright would have made him refrain from snapping at her the moment he saw her.

"... I ..." Mai took a breath and let it out; it was fine. He was grumpy, as per usual - no big deal. "... Well, it's after school so I figured I should come in-" The door to Naru's office, which was silghtly ajar, opened more and he looked out, that same neutral, aloof expression on his face that was there ninety percent of the time prevailing.

"Go home." Two simple, non-negotiable words. She hated when he did that. However, this time it was almost like ... Almost like she could imagine that he wasn't actually angry at her; maybe he was worried ...?

"But -"

"You're of no use to anyone if you're not well. Just go home." Nope; clearly she was crazy, or still walking off the affects of something they had dosed her with at the hospital, because he was still being as rude and insensitive as ever. Mai resisted the urge to sigh or rub her temples. Fine. He wanted her to leave? Then she would.

"... Right. Ok. I'll uh ... See you later then," her tone was a little stiff - she had completely forgotten that she wanted to thank him for covering her hospital bills or anything like that. Mai was just totally deflated.

"Osaki ni," Mai quietly murmured the normal departing phrase as she turned to leave the office, head slightly down even though she tried to keep it up. Opening the door, this time she did sigh quietly and didn't look back into the office.

Which is unfortunate, because Mai would have seen that for a moment, it really looked like Naru wanted to say something to her before she left.

But he didn't.

**Tsu zu ku …**

**(To be Continued)**

Footnotes:

1 - What Mai calls Masako in the anime/manga; a little more formal than addressing her by her first name. At some point in the last couple cases in the manga I believe she drops this and just calls her 'Masako', but I'm not completely certain so I figured I would toss this in once in a while for accuracy. Or something.

2 - a Mononoke is any kind of spirit that possesses someone and makes them suffer or even sometimes die. An onryō is a wrathful spirit that is able to cause harm in the world of the living, up to and including killing people. The distinction is that Yoshie possessed Mai and made her suffer through part of her death; the abductor was just angry, and would have been able to cause harm to Mai, sort of like a poltergeist.

3 - in the English version of the Ring, you only had to make a copy of the video tape; but in the original Japanese version, not only did you have to copy it, but you had to _show_ that copy to someone that wasn't already cursed. Pretty messed up, huh? It follows the Japanese superstition that the only way to truly get rid of an affliction or illness is to infect someone else with it; it's essetially like you're giving it to the other person so you won't have it any more.

4 - "Tadaima" means "I'm back"; it's normally what you say when you return home.


	6. Case 2: Evasion

**A/N****: **I'm alive! Sorry for the delay; I've been working 18hr days during the week, and catching up on sleep on the weekends, so I haven't really had time. ^^;; A 6 month hiatus is better than a 12 month hiatus though, am I right? xD Ahahahahahahaaa ...

Please don't shoot me ... ^^;;

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Case 2, Chapter 1: Evasion

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At first, Taniyama Mai had tried to go back to the office to resume her daily duties; she had been told after the fact that the spirits that had been in the home they had visited in Sayama were no longer present, so the case was solved, and the inhabitants of the house were very glad for the help. It was so strange to her; normally they spent days, sometimes even a week or more on a case, but that one had been … Well, strangely easy. It had taken them less than a day to not only figure out, but then fix the problem – that was less time than Mai had spent in the hospital afterwards. Then again, she had been possessed right off the bat, and that had given them a bit of information off the cuff, but still … It almost felt almost unnatural to the brunette.

She'd gone to bed early the afternoon she'd seen Naru and he'd told her to go home; if she was being truly honest with herself, Mai really hadn't felt one – hundred percent at her best, and the extra sleep she ended up getting did help a little. However, she had figured that by the time she got up in the morning, she'd feel better – but honestly the high school student still hadn't been great. Her head ached and her body was extremely difficult to drag out of bed.

She'd managed it … only to vomit shortly afterwards. It was around that point that she decided she must be sick or something, and rather than contaminate her classmates, she stayed in bed. For the next week or so she didn't really move from her futon on the floor, mostly too weak or tired to bother doing much of anything. The school had checked in on her, and she told them what was happening – the only time she left was to stumble to the doctor's office in order to get a note to excuse her from classes. He hadn't been able to deduce what was wrong with her; his best guesses had been either heat stroke or a mild case of mononucleosis, Neither of which did she have, Mai was certain, but either way she was awarded a pass for her diligence that kept her out of school for the rest of the week without question.

During her week long stay in bed, she had been woozy and disoriented most of the time; if the room didn't seem like it was spinning from vertigo, she often felt like she was floating a foot above her body or so. At the time it hadn't been that disorienting, but retrospectively she was pretty sure it should have been. Either way, one of the few things that made her feel better was slowly relaxing all of her muscles; if she was too tense that tended to end in her abdominal muscles spasming angrily and forcing her to expunge anything she'd managed to get down, so it was actually a very practical thing to do. And it wasn't like there was much else she could accomplish in that state anyway.

Sometime around the following weekend or so, she had felt well enough to get up and walk around short distances, and managed to keep down more than a half cup of bland liquid at a time, which was an improvement from the beginning of the week to be sure. It wasn't so much that her condition had worsened since she'd left the hospital as it was that once she didn't need to prove she was well enough to be discharged her body apparently decided it wasn't going to impress anyone. By the end of the weekend, Taniyama Mai was able to walk to the library, which was nearly as far away as school, so it seemed like it was plausible for her to start attending classes again.

In the second week following Mai's hospital stay, she tried once or twice more to go to work after school, and each time, rather than open hostility, she was more accurately met with a brick wall. Cold, oppressive, and stony were perfect adjectives to describe Naru's demeanor towards her, and it was noticeably more so than usual. The last time she had seen him in person he had only said two words to her – "go home" – and refused to acknowledge her otherwise. So, instead, Mai had resorted to calling the office, periodically, about once a week, to see if her apparent ban from the SPR office had been lifted as inexplicably as it had been imposed. So far it had not.

As time went on, Mai spent more and more time alone. At school, at the library, in her apartment ... She always had this solitary feeling that followed her around, and the brunette was sure that was the worst part. More than her having been so weak on that last case, more than Naru apparently wanting nothing to do with her now, more than anything ... Was the fact that she always felt so lonely; it was a feeling she'd been getting used to forgetting ever since she'd started working at SPR, but it seemed it was coming back full force now.

Her friends from school still hadn't warmed back up to her, so they weren't keen on spending much time with her outside of classes; Mai had tried a few times, but the last time it had been painfully obvious how distant they'd grown, and she'd basically given up at trying to bridge the gap and make things how they once were.. The brunette, because she was so busy with work, was completely out of the loop as far as anything popular was concerned – music, fashion, trends … She was pretty much in the dark. So, when her friends had been inclined to hang out they went to the movies, which was fine. But it was like she was a spectator to all of the conversations. Mai didn't contribute to any of the chatter that occurred while they were hanging out before the movie, and by the time it was over and the rest of them decided to grab something to eat afterwards, even though she could afford it for once without worrying about what she was going to do for the rest of the week … Mai was so separate from them, trailing behind the group, not really giving any input that she felt as lonely, maybe even more so than she did when she sat at home by herself ... She had just opted to go off on her home rather than join them. It was as bad as being a third wheel, almost like they were strangers.

This had been going on for what felt like an eternity – Mai had been in the hospital for the weekend in April. It was now approaching Golden Week. (1) Of course, she wasn't _entirely_ alone – Bou – san and Ayako had come to visit her unexpectedly a few times and then taken her out to get ice cream. She'd even spoken to Hara – san over the phone, though the conversation had been short lived and a bit on the awkward side – however, the brunette appreciated the gesture immensely, because Hara – San had called Mai, and for her to have done that she must have either really missed Mai or been worried about her. Either way the sentiment was touching. John Brown had gotten a call to return to Australia, so he hadn't been around much, but he had been sending her emails periodically, and those always made her smile when she read them at the computer lab at school or in the library.

It didn't seem to matter how patient she seemed, or how polite and unobtrusive she was when she called about coming back to work … It was all for nothing. Day in and day out, the brunette went to classes, and went home. Sometimes Mai would stop by the library and return a book or get a new one, but at this point she had pretty much finished everything that sounded interesting in the paranormal section, and she wasn't sure how to branch out into other relevant topics, so her options were becoming less and less … She'd even tried getting out titles she had already read, in the hopes that she had forgotten some of it, so that it would be at least in part like reading or learning something new … But for some reason, possibly because it was directly relevant to her life experiences, she didn't. Give her any other book on any other subject, and she could forget it in five seconds, but this for some reason, stuck in her head, and it was stuck fast.

The result basically boiled down to Taniyama Mai spending most of her time at home, in her small, dark, one room apartment. More often than not she didn't bother opening the blinds on her lone window, and laid out her futon as soon as she arrived home from school so that she had a comfortable place to lay; as such, mostly for lack of anything better to do, she ended up sleeping. And if she had a hard time going to sleep, she'd just lay there. Sometimes she'd try to relax to make it easier to drift off, but that had a fifty – fifty chance of making her think of Eugene, which only served to depress her further …

Eventually, it occurred to Mai that Naru was avoiding talking to her over the phone. When she had first started calling, it was a complete toss up as to whether Naru or Lin would pick up – and more often than not it was Naru, actually. But, as it got further into June and even now it was getting into July, more often it was Lin that answered and told her that Naru wasn't available for some reason or another. It wasn't even as if she called that frequently; usually sometime on Monday to see if they wanted her to work that week. And, it wasn't like the rotary phones in the office had Caller ID, so there was no possible way they knew it was her when she called – it was like Naru was just avoiding answering the phones entirely on Mondays just on the off chance he might have to talk to her.

At this point the high school student decided that if he didn't want her to work in the office anymore, which is what it was increasingly looking like whether she wanted to admit it or not, then Naru had to say it to her face. Which was precisely why she was in front of the Shibuya Psychic Research office right now, staring at the door as if it were going to grow teeth and bite her. After standing there for what felt like forever, she eventually shook her head and took a breath. It was now or never; she had to confront him, or risk floating around in limbo forever without knowing if she had a job or not.

Raising a hand, she pushed on the glass door in front of her, opening it and ringing the little bell that would alert the inhabitants of the office that they had a potential customer. It was strange, seeing that familiar desk sitting empty; normally she would be coming to to take up a temporary residence in that very spot, but for now it was like she were a stranger coming to SPR with a case she felt so out of place and awkward. Honestly Mai _did_ have a case; the case of why a narcisistic college student was snubbing her for no good reason. The uncomfortable feeling only intensified when the back office door opened and the dark haired male stepped out into the main room.

She was surprised to find that the first thing she noticed was that he looked very tired. He had dark circles under his eyes that seemed odd and out of place against his good looking features. (It still irritated her to no end that she thought he had a handsome face, but she'd come to accept that as long as she didn't say it to anyone else, it was sort of alright). It looked like maybe he hadn't been sleeping – that, or someone had recently punched him in both eyes. He probably deserved if it did happen, which Mai was sure it hadn't ... Pausing and collecting up her wandering thoughts as she realized she was still staring at Naru, he broke the silence before she could awkwardly clear her throat.

"What are you doing here?" He didn't exactly sound ... irritated. Just exasperated, like you would when speaking to a child that kept repeatedly asking for ice cream even though you'd already said no. Which was irritating to _her_, but she took another slow breath to calm herself and just held his gaze as best she could before responding evenly.

"I came to find out when you're going to let me come back to work." The statement was simple and not at all confrontational, yet at the same time it seemed to hang in the space between them like some sort of idle threat. He watched her for a long moment while the silence stretched on before turning to go back into his office.

"... Not this week." The response was dismissive, and the brunette could hardly believe what she was hearing from him. It was literally the exact same thing he'd been saying for almost three months, and she was absolutely sick to _death_ of being jerked around as he saw fit ...

"Then _when_!?" She hadn't meant to shout, but Mai had _had_ _it_ with this game of ring around the rosy they were playing. "When I turn 20? At this rate I'll graduate from _college_ before you tell me to come back."

"... ... ... I don't know when; just not now – " She'd like to imagine that his emotions were conflicted when he answered, even if his face betrayed no sign of any such sentiment. However, that did little to help Mai's current disposition; she hadn't done anything wrong or terrible, so why was she being punished?! It wasn't fair at all, and made no sense – it wasn't like she had made a grave error that jeopardized the case or anything. Everything had gone remarkably well, the case was solved, the clients were happy, there was no property damage or lasting physical/psychological damage for any party involved ... So why was Naru being like this?

"Are you trying to fire me!?" The question flew past her lips before she could think about what she was asking or stop it from happening; she hadn't meant to ask that, because now he could very easily say 'yes' and that would end the conversation. But, rather than let it sit in the awkward silence that it would likely settle into, the brunette continued on, for better or for worse. "Is this your way of telling me you never want to see me again? Because it would be a lot easier for everyone if you would just say it and get it over with!"

Naru seemed almost taken aback by this sudden outburst, or so Mai thought even though she had no real evidence for the allegation. This made her feel, not exactly vindicated, but perhaps a little comforted, even as the long silence she had been trying to avoid reared its ugly head, and slowly stretched on until she thought she'd go crazy.

"... If you want me to fire you, then fine, I will." Brown eyes widened as she stared at the college student in disbelief; he ... He couldn't possibly mean that ... "But it won't be my fault. You're asking me to." Air rushed back into her lungs at a dizzying speed when she heard the second half of his statement; that she could argue with.

"No, I did not _ask_ you to do _anything_ except tell me if you're ever going to let me work again! I don't _want_ you to fire me, and I'm not quitting either!" She added the last part hastily before he got any other snide ideas about her position on her job. Naru didn't roll his eyes, but it seemed like he wanted to, which only caused her irritation to spike higher – however, before she could keep talking, he answered very simply.

"Then go home and wait for me to call you." And proceeded to go back into his office, shutting the door between them crisply. The brunette could only stare at the the threshold that now separated them in disbelief; it had closed with a certain air of finality that made her feel like somehow Naru had gotten the last word, even though the high schooler had plenty more to say ...

Mai was so irritated she could've screamed.

She didn't, mostly to save herself what was likely to be reprimand from her boss, if not complete expulsion at this point. Why was he giving her such a hard time!? It wasn't like she was an invalid; there was no reason she couldn't sit at a desk and stare off into space the same as she could sit on her bed at home and stare off into space. They weren't trying to save any money by keeping her away from the office either – she still received her regular pay checks in the mail as if she faithfully came to work every day. Mai had the whole stack sitting on the counter in her kitchen; she hadn't cashed a single one – but the point still stood that she _could_.

She didn't need to move any heavy equipment or anything like what she normally would when they actually had a case – which they hadn't in a while as far as she knew. And the brunette had the sneaking suspicion that it was because Naru didn't want her to go on one … though she wasn't precisely sure why she thought that, because he could just as easily tell her she couldn't go or not even tell her there was a case at all ... Not that it mattered either way.

There was nothing wrong with her. Really. He was acting like she was some kind of pariah or something, and there was no reason for it.

Mai looked at the office door he'd just disappeared behind, pressing at her eye with the heel of her hand. She felt like a little kid that had been chastised for misbehaving; but all she wanted to do was come back to work. She just wanted to be treated like normal. Even if normal wasn't exactly _nicely_, it was better than this. Scrubbing at her eye a little harder to stop the warm liquid she now felt trying to roll down her cheek, she sat down in one of the chairs across from the reception desk in the little waiting area. Which did the opposite of help because it just made her look at the desk she used to habituate, and was now no longer allowed to for whatever reason. She had to wait until she calmed down; she couldn't go outside crying like this ...

"... ... Is something the matter?" The voice made the high school student jump, and she looked around frantically for a second before her eyes landed on the source of the sound; Lin had just come in the front door, and she had been so preoccupied she didn't notice him or the bell ringing to announce his presence.

"N – no! No; nothing's wrong. I'm fine. I'm not crying or anything ..." she trailed off as she pushed at her own eyes more vehemently, knowing that it was the poorest lie she'd ever told, but not knowing what else to say or do. "... I'm fine." Lin didn't respond, but he didn't need to; it was pretty obvious she wasn't alright, even if she wasn't admitting it.

"... if you need to go home – " the statement was a simple one, and logical to assume, but as soon as it hit her ears she went on the defensive. If one more person told her to go home, she didn't know what she would do, but it most likely wouldn't be ideal. Or polite.

"No! Ugh, why does everyone keep telling me that!?" she interrupted him sharply as she hit herself in the face with the palm of her hand harder than she'd meant to, which made her wince slightly. Letting out a long breath, she said quietly a moment later, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap... It's just ... ever since I fainted on the last case Naru – Everyone has been acting like I'm made of glass, and chasing me away from the office – I didn't even _do_ anything! I was just possessed a lot, so I was tired and fainted – it's been months, I'm fine now; it's not going to happen ..." Mai trailed off slightly because of the poignantly confused expression that crossed the much taller male's face.

"... again... Lin? ... Did I ... say something wrong ...?" she asked tentatively, not sure what that look was for. He just had this utterly baffled expression; she hadn't been speaking too quickly to understand, right?

"You ... don't remember what happened?" Lin eventually asked, the confounded look not leaving his face. Blinking, it was Mai's turn to garner a look of non – comprehension. Of course she knew what happened; her memories weren't the picture of clarity, and it had been a while ago, but that didn't matter – it was sort of hard to forget, what with the abject terror she had been feeling at the time and everything. But, just to clarify, she figured she might as well briefly recount the events according to her memories.

"Huh? What do you mean? Of course I remember ... I mean it's fuzzy, but I was running around, trying to get away from the thing that was chasing me, then I was cornered, I saw Naru for a second, and fainted right after that ... ... right?" The request for affirmation was uncertain mostly because of the expression on Lin's face – she had seen the look once or twice before when he was particularly perplexed ... But seeing it now as she tried to explain her remembrance of events only served to make _Mai_ a little perplexed ...

"Mai... you didn't faint." Her eyebrows furrowed at the claim. Of course she had. "You passed out, yes, but ... if you had only lost consciousness, why would you have woken up in a hospital ...?" That ... Was actually a fair question; she hadn't thought about it before, but Mai had passed out on other assignments with no need to visit the paramedics, so what had made this time any different?

"I ... ... don't know ... I mean, I guess maybe I hit my head ...? Or someone started to worry when I was asleep for longer than normal ...?" He seemed exasperated when he sighed, but it wasn't directed at her, or at least she didn't think it was ... Putting his hand on his forehead , there was a bit of a pause before eventually Lin looked at the high schooler.

"At first, I wasn't sure what had happened. After you screamed and we heard you run off, all of us had split up to figure out where you had gone and what was going on," he began to explain almost distantly; absently. "You're right – Naru found you first ... I was in the park when he ran up to me," Lin wasn't looking at her, but rather over her shoulder, like he was watching the scene he was describing play before his eyes on the wall behind her.

"You mean Naru …?" Mai asked hesitantly for clarification's sake. Lin still wasn't looking at her when he responded to the question.

"Yes, Naru … Carrying you." The brunette high school student nodded; that made sense, and it jived with her assumption that she'd passed out, so why was he telling her any of this? Her coworker then looked Mai in the eye with his normal steady expression suddenly, and her continued confusion must've shown because he explained further. "When he came up to me, I could see he was panicking." Panicking? _Naru_? Mai found that extremely difficult to believe. She'd never even really seen him anxious before, even after they'd fallen down a sewer grate, he'd been injured, and they didn't know how or when they were going to get out. Skepticism was rampant in the brunette's expression, but Lin wasn't looking at her anymore, so it didn't matter. He was almost looking through her; like he wasn't in the SPR office at all – instead it was like he was watching the memory again.

"He was shaking, and pale; I asked him what was wrong, and he said … He said he'd hurt you, accidentally. When I looked at you, I hadn't noticed it before, but you were bleeding from one of your ears. Shibuya told me he couldn't wake you; I guess that spirit had been after you and he attacked it without thinking – but for some reason, his PK went through you first before destroying it." Mai's eyes narrowed in confusion as the tall, dark haired male slowly recounted Naru's story. It touched her first, before the spirit? That didn't make sense; the spirit had been between her and Naru as far as she knew, so logically Naru's PK should have gone through the spirit before it ever came anywhere near her. Also, Naru had used PK? ... He never did that.

"But," Mai interjected for the first time thoughtfully, "if he used his abilities … Shouldn't he have been hurt too?" She asked this thinking of the few times she had ever seen Naru use his abilities, two times had landed him in the hospital for quite a while before he was able to be released, and any others had left him drained and weakened for a while afterwards. Lin nodded distantly at the question, and for a few moments he didn't answer. Eventually, he shook his head though and blinked a little, coming back to the office and real time.

"He was perfectly fine. I called an ambulance and you went to the hospital; you know the rest of the story." Honestly, the brunette wasn't sure what to say or think for that matter. It wasn't like Naru to get upset, so she almost couldn't believe that was the truth … And the idea of her fainting made a lot more sense than this strange notion that Naru's powers had somehow damaged her first, before anything even happened to the spirit at all. He'd done similar things before by himself when she'd goaded him on, and that was one of the times he had been so exhausted he'd had to take a trip to the hospital – it took a lot out of him, Mai knew that much. And apparently she'd been bleeding from the ear, which is not a usual biproduct of fainting as far as she knew.

_If he felt like it was his fault though,_ the notion occurred to the high school student, _then it makes sense that he could have called the hospitalization a "work related expense" …. And he did pay the bill_ ... But this still didn't mesh well with reality as Mai understood it? There was no way Naru felt guilty, or even bad, about whatever had happened to her. That wasn't like him at all; he was far too self – centered to care about anyone other than himself. And maybe his twin brother, but that was beside the point.

"Don't repeat this," Lin interrupted her thoughts, and Mai looked up at him in question, "but he's not avoiding you because he's angry with you or anything like that." Wide brown eyes blinked up at him in confusion. "I'm sure he wouldn't want me to tell you this ... But I think ... I think he's staying away from you because he's angry at himself for putting you in the hospital in the first place." She paused for a few stunned moments before nodding slowly, unsure of how to respond. She didn't necessarily understand the logic behind that reasoning, but she did realize that Lin was telling her all of this on the good faith that she wouldn't tell Naru any of this. And she realized that he was doing this because he knew she was upset and he was trying to make her feel better, whether she believed him or not notwithstanding – and for that she was very grateful. So, rather than argue, she smiled at him and nodded.

"Thank you for telling me, Lin," she said. The brunette had the distinct urge to hug him, even though Lin wasn't one for physical contact in most cases. Normally she would ignore the idea, but she was suddenly so happy that at least _someone_ in this office seemed to care about her emotional well being that she didn't care. Stepping forward quickly, she put her arms around Lin's waist, having to angle them upwards slightly uncomfortably because he was so much taller than her. Mai wasn't at all surprised he didn't hug her back; he was probably too shocked or confused to do anything, not that he would have reciprocated even if had been expecting it. After a few moments she let go of him, backing off a few steps to give him space before smiling at him again, turning, and heading towards the door to leave the office. The high school student felt at least marginally better, even if it wasn't for the reason Lin was trying to give her, and she walked with her head up towards her apartment in something much closer to her normal, peppy mood.

* * *

For the second time that week, Mai took a deep breath outside the SPR Office. It was just yesterday that she had been told to go home and wait for Naru to call her when he wanted her to come back to work. Well, Mai wasn't the kid of girl to sit idly by the phone and wait for a boy to call her, and if what Lin had told her was true, (though she still had a hard time believing Naru was worried about her), then he was never going to call and tell her to come to the office. So, rather than continue on as she had been for nearly 3 months, passively allowing Naru to treat her like dirt, she instead was going to confront him. Not like she had the day before; that hadn't gotten her anywhere useful anyway. This time she was going to try something different.

Instead of talking to anyone, she simply filed into the office, put her bag away in one of the desk drawers, and sat down in her rightful place at the reception desk. She didn't say anything to anyone, or draw any attention to herself – however, she could hear muffled conversation on the other side of Naru's office door, which meant he was either on the phone or meeting with clients. Mai couldn't tell which since the door was closed, but either way it explained why he hadn't come out to see who had come into the office.

Absently her brown eyes roved over the desk; it honestly looked as if no one had touched it except maybe to dust for the entire time she'd been gone. The coaster she usually displaced from the set on the small table in the sitting area was even still where she normally put it on the desk for her tea cup. It was almost surreal; instead of weeks ago, it seemed as if she had worked just the day before.

And there she sat, as if she were absolutely supposed to be where she was, even if the brunette knew that as soon a she was seen she'd be reprimanded and probably sent home. Mai didn't care though; she was going to prove that sitting in an office a few yards away from Naru in the next room over wasn't going to put her in a coma, and she wasn't going to pass out and light the building on fire by way of neglecting the boiling tea pot.

It was unsurprisingly uneventful – Narus' office door stayed closed, as it usually did, and the phone didn't ring, no customers came in … The normalcy of it all nearly made her chest ache from longing for it. Taniyama Mai eventually began to occupy herself by closing her eyes, and, falling into a past time that she had as of recently tended to turn to when she had nothing else to do, began selectively relaxing different parts of her body. It wasn't really practice per say; she had more so been doing it just to see if she could on command loosen up her hand or her calf without much prompting and separately from everything else. And she'd been getting faster at it. Was that the right word? More efficient? Well, whatever you want to call it, Mai was much better at it now than she had been before. She counted breaths easily, and before she got to ten the lower half of her was so malleable she could hardly feel it if she was working on relaxing the entire thing.

Eventually the highschooler opened her eyes after sitting there for what was probably quite a while in retrospect. When she did, however, she started slightly because her gaze immediately fell onto a dark, coal black one. Across the room, at the counter where she had brewed a pot of tea before she'd taken up her post at the front desk stood Naru, staring directly at her, teacup in hand. It felt like he was staring into her soul … She couldn't look away, and the air caught in her throat the same way it tended to when there was a particularly unsettling spirit nearby.

This was it. He was going to tell Mai to get out and never come back.

Taking a slow breath through her nose, the brunette continued to hold his steady gaze for what felt like an eternity, though her body was so relaxed from her earlier exercises that she didn't tremble as she waited for the sentence that would end her employment.

And then …

There was nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Naru calmly and silently turned, filled his empty cup from the teapot on the trivet, and walked back into the office as if he hadn't even seen her at all. Blinking at the door to Naru's office, Mai stared, utterly confused. She'd been so sure he was going to yell at her again that the fact that he hadn't had left her feeling … strangely unfulfilled, even though this was the better outcome. But, if he didn't yell ... Then that meant he wasn't chasing her out. And if he wasn't chasing her out, then that meant he was allowing her to stay.

For some reason, this realization didn't really comfort her, and she wasn't exactly sure why ...

Mai sat in silence for the rest of the afternoon; as far as she knew, Lin wasn't in today because she hadn't seen him at all, but she didn't dare ask where he'd gone for fear of catching Naru's attention and making him remember he hadn't told her to go home and stay there until he said otherwise yet. He didn't bother her – he didn't even _look_ at her again as far as she saw even though she kept the pot of tea hot for the rest of the afternoon, and once or twice he came out of his office where he'd holed himself up as per usual to refill his cup. This carried on until dark, when she started cleaning up things as was expected of her. Shoes on, coat and bag in hand, she paused at the door for a very long moment before her soft, tentative voice cut through the rather oppressive silence.

"… Osaki ni." And she remained still for a few tense moments to see if she'd get a response of any sort. Of course she never had before, but these circumstances were a bit strange, so maybe something different would happen …? Mai slowly counted to ten before deciding that that was plenty of time to await an answer, and that she probably wasn't going to get one, so she proceeded to fairly bolt out the door, wincing slightly as the bell clanked irritably at her haste.

Between then and the next day after school Mai didn't receive a phone call or anything telling her to stay away, so she once again went to the office. And once again sat in abject silence for the entirety of the time she was there. However, this time Lin was present – not that he was much of a conversation partner, but at least she wasn't being left alone with her grouchy, selfish, narcissistic boss.

This went on for nearly two weeks, and Mai had just about started to settle back in to the routine when one day, Mr. Narcissist himself decided to stop in front of the reception desk and look at the brunette high schooler passively until she became so uncomfortable she had to acknowledge him, which didn't take very long at all. Blinking up at him, before she could say anything he spoke.

"You don't need to be here." Ok; not the words she'd been expecting. In fact, she was caught so off guard that she couldn't think of what she should say in response, if anything at all. Not that it mattered though, because a moment later Naru explained what he was getting at much more candidly. "You've been here two weeks, and you've seen for yourself. There's no work for you to do. No cases. So you can just leave." Really? He was going to start this all over again? After she'd more or less proven that there was no harm in letting her stay in the office, and nothing bad happened if she did?

"Since when has it _ever_ mattered if we have cases or not?" She demanded, slamming her hands down on the desk in front of herself in frustration as she stood, rising to the confrontation that was suddenly being thrust upon her without missing a beat. She'd just started to let her guard down too; to think that this was going to work out and that everything would be fine. Ha! She should've known. "Admit it; you are just _looking _for excuses to get me to –"

_Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! __Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!_

And what irony! The phone was ringing. Mai looked at the desk where the offending technology screamed and vibrated to get their attention. She wasn't allowed to answer the phone; she wasn't allowed to do _anything_. Hell, she wasn't even allowed to be there as far as her boss was concerned.

_Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!_

Taniyama Mai looked back at Naru, and held his dark gaze for a long moment. Naru already didn't want anything to do with her – what's the worst he could do at this point? Yell? She almost snorted at the thought; it wasn't like that would be any different than normal – he did that constantly now when he deemed it worth his time to speak to her. And if he fired her, well that would just be one less stress in her life; if Mai could get back even half the sleep she'd missed because of this stupid job, and worrying about whether or not _he_ was mad at her, or if she could go back to her normal schedule, being constantly disappointed by his aloofness, being upset at the silent rejection, feeling inadequate, nearly _drowning_ in lonliness ...

_Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! __Piiiiiiiiiii – _

That was the third ring; the phone only ever rang three times, and then it would disconnect. Both of them looked down, and without another thought, for the very first time, Taniyama Mai's hand snapped out and she snatched the receiver up off of the cradle, put it to her ear, and she spoke.

"SPR how can I help?" Naru had started to reach out to stop her, but he was too slow, and it was too late; she would have been satisfied with his shocked look – Mai had never seen the college student's eyes as quite that wide before and that was richly vindicating – except for the fact that, once what she had done had started to sink in, she began to panic. She had answered the phone. _Answered_ the _phone_. At _SPR_. Mai had never done that before; sure she'd answered _phones_ before, but not _the_ phone – not the one in the office. However, before her anxiety was able to set in enough that she actually started to hyperventilate or worse, a voice on the other end of the line spoke.

"Please, you have to help me; I don't know who else to turn to – it's ... It's hard to explain; I just need you to come – " She hardly registered that it was a very nervous – seeming man's voice that came out of the speaker in a little better than a whisper; honestly she could hardly hear it. But she _did_ hear it, and responded without hesitation.

"Absolutely sir!" Mai nearly shouted with her nervous energy, but managed to keep her voice reasonably even as she looked Naru straight in the eyes and said, "we currently don't have any cases, so we'd love to take yours on!" She started to nod in agreement with herself, looking down at the desk to listen to what she was being told.

"Oh you would!?" the nervous voice sounded grateful as he continued, "I'm so relieved; I didn't know if I would be able to stand it any longer. When is the soonest you can be here? If it costs extra to get you here as soon as possible, then – "

_Click._

Blinking, thinking that they had gotten disconnected, Mai looked at the phone ... And realized that there were two fingers on the cradle where the receiver normally went to force the call to hang up. Slowly tilting her head, she looked up the black sleeve, to the shoulder, and then to the face. It was Naru.

And he didn't look happy ...

.

**Tsu zu ku ...**

**(To be Continued)**

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Footnotes:

1 – Golden Week in Japan is sort of like summer vacation, or maybe more accurately it's like spring break. Usually it's sometime between July 20th and August 31st, and it can last anywhere from 7 to 10 days, depending on the year.


End file.
